The Philadelphia Flyers are one win away from punching their ticket to the second round of the playoffs but it is a decision that head coach Rick Tocchet made for Game 5 on Monday that is dominating headlines. And now, that might lead to some interesting conversations this offseason.
Matvei Michkov, as well a know by now, was a healthy scratch for the Flyers’ Game 5 in Pittsburgh against the Penguins. It ended up being a loss and now the Flyers’ 3-0 series lead has dwindled to a 3-2 lead with another opportunity to close out the series with a win on Wednesday.
Well, the Flyers’ 21-year-old potential star winger sitting out of a big playoff game — despite not playing well at all in the first four games and averaging just 10:06 time-on-ice in the playoffs — is getting a whole lot of attention around the NHL and other teams could look to take advantage of the situation.
Other teams are expected to ring up the Flyers this summer and hope that the situation is so dire that they want to give up on their young player.
Teams are going to call the Flyers about Matvei Michkov this summer
On Wednesday’s episode of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast, Elliotte Friedman went into detail about how teams are sniffing around certain situations in these playoffs and trying to capitalize on it this summer.
“It’s going to be big, because the other thing that this executive was telling me right now is that everybody’s making a note of who’s playing and who’s not playing on these teams, right? For example, Anaheim, [Owen] Zellweger’s not playing. So people are making notes. What does this mean? Whenever Anaheim’s season is done, there will be teams that call the Ducks and say ‘Okay, you know, what are you thinking here?’
“So I can tell you right now, people are looking at this and they are saying ‘All right, if this player interests us, we have to be ready to see a) what we’re willing to do and b) what Philadelphia is going to do’.”
According to Friedman, teams are going to be poking around this offseason looking to see if Michkov is available in any sort of trade because of everything that is happening and the eventual healthy scratch.
It makes sense that teams are going to at least give it a try. To see if Michkov is a player who is burning a hole in the wallet of general manager Danny Briere, and can offer up something to rid him of that supposed burden. Michkov is an ultra-talented winger who has had a very rough sophomore season due to some lack of preparation. Other teams will firmly believe that he can blossom under their guidance because they think so highly of themselves and such.
But, that would have to mean that the Flyers are giving up on the player and it would be extremely surprising if that was the case. When the situation was really bubbling over in February, Briere came out and publicly said that Michkov is going nowhere. To then turn around and trade him a few months later because he had a very bad playoffs and the head coach decided he needed a reset, and wanted Alex Bump to get in the game (who certainly deserved his shot), would show some extreme impatience. And frankly, that would be very uncharacteristic from the Flyers front office, who has preached patience and showed it in moves such as the Trevor Zegras trade.
The Matvei Michkov discourse overshadowing everything
Friedman also touched on everything that is going on in Philadelphia and just how reactionary everyone is to anything going on with Michkov.
“One of the things you really think about in the playoffs is enough trouble comes your way that you try to not walk yourself into any controversy. And [an NHL executive is] fascinated by the fact this player is such a lightning rod, both good and bad, that Philly could be up 3-1 in a series going in that game. They make the scratch because he hasn’t played great and immediately, that’s a fireball in a series you’re winning and have played very well.
“I’m focused on the series because nothing is going to happen right now, but the one thing that we know is that whenever this season ends for the Flyers, that’s going to be by far the most dominant plot of their offseason. And there isn’t going to be a close number two.”
Earlier in the conversation, Friedman also mentioned how it is ultimately a balance — to make a decision that is going to be scrutinized by the fan base but to make that difficult choice for what’s best for the team on the ice.
The move that will be heavily scrutinized by the fan base and hockey world writ large is if the Flyers give up on a promising young winger before he turns 22 years old just because there has been some perceived conflict between coach and player and he kind of stunk in the playoffs. But teams will certainly try their best to pry Michkov away from Philadelphia this summer because of it.
Michkov scored 20 goals and 51 points in 81 games this past regular season for the Flyers, in what has been labeled as an unsuccessful year for the winger that is still two years younger than Kirill Kaprizov when he made his NHL debut.
