The Philadelphia Flyers are getting ready to hopefully close out the first-round series against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday night and appear to be bringing their promising young winger back into the lineup after the controversial scratch.
With the speculation in full force and rumor mills working overtime, the Flyers took to the ice this morning for an optional skate ahead of Wednesday’s Game 6 against the Penguins. And from the looks of things, there appears to be a few questions still lingering about the lineup that the morning session isn’t really resolving. However, it appears that winger Matvei Michkov is going to return to the lineup after being a healthy scratch for Game 5.
Matvei Michkov appears to be back in Flyers lineup for Game 6
Thanks to PHLY’s Charlie O’Connor, Michkov was among the Flyers regulars who departed morning skate at the typical time, as a collection of players remained on the ice and those guys should be the scratches for Wednesday night.
Garnet Hathaway, Emil Andrae and Oliver Bonk were still on the ice late, so looks like they could be the scratches. Matvei Michkov definitely appears to be coming back into lineup. https://t.co/VQ40Rlv3mx
— Jordan Hall (@JHallNBCS) April 29, 2026
Among the projected scratches was Garnet Hathaway, who would be the easiest player to remove that was part of the lineup for Game 5 in Pittsburgh. While the fourth line with Sean Couturier, Luke Glendening, and Hathaway has been outstanding, a change was needed after they didn’t make the same impact on Monday.
We won’t know the actual lines or who is in the lineup until they start to take line rushes during warmups before Game 6, but we at least can give a very educated guess as to who is in the lineup and who is out. And it seems like an easy Hathaway-for-Michkov swap.
Michkov is still looking for his first playoff point of the series alongside winger Tyson Foerster. While there’s no word as to where Michkov will be slotted into the lineup, but if the past is any indication, it would be a safe bet to see him alongside center Noah Cates. All we can do is guess what the lineup will look like.
Now, Michkov gets the chance to come back and truly make an impact in a game that the Flyers simply have to win. After going up 3-0 in the series and now that the Penguins have stormed back with two consecutive wins and could force a Game 7 on Wednesday night, the Flyers need every single player to be contributing to this potential series-winning game; Michkov included.
Since morning skate was optional ahead of Game 6, some players did decide to take it easy and not get on the ice until warmups.
#Flyers on the ice for morning skate. Most guys out there. Tippett, Konecny, Couturier, Couturier or Ristolainen are not but expect that to be maintenance for tonight.
— Jackie Spiegel (@jackiespiegel93) April 29, 2026
As mentioned above, Owen Tippett, Travis Konecny, Sean Couturier and Rasmus Ristolainen weren’t participating in the skate. But nobody should read too much into that as those players most likely are banged up. So, any time on the ice other than the playoff action at this point in the season seems foolish at best.
Oliver Bonk playoff debut? Not likely
There was also speculation that defenseman Oliver Bonk — who made his debut in the season finale against Montreal (and scored his first NHL goal) — might be a replacement for either Emil Andrae or Noah Juulsen. Bonk would be on the third pairing if dressing with Nick Seeler. He does provide some size over Andrae and he might be a pair of fresh legs that the Flyers could use in the latter stages of round one.
However, as we know from the provided list of current scratches who remained off the ice as the regulars departed, Bonk is projected to not be in the lineup and instead, it will be Noah Juulsen coming in for Emil Andrae on the back end.
Dan Vladar gets the start
Perhaps the most obvious news today would be that Dan Vladar will make his sixth consecutive start of the playoffs. Vladar had a rough outing in each of the last two games thanks to some ridiculously unfortunate bounces (and a puck-handling miscue) that caused two Pittsburgh goals. Vladar should hopefully avoid any bad bounces and look like he did early in the third period of Game 5 where he stoned Penguins winger Bryan Rust in close.
Vladar will need to be strong tonight and not give up any bad goals if the Flyers are to eliminate the Penguins tonight.
