Matvei Michkov isn’t off to the most stellar start for the Philadelphia Flyers, but there are signs of life and reasons we should not be too concerned.
In the first three games of his NHL career, Michkov had three points and was dazzling on the Philadelphia Flyers’ trip out to the west coast to open the 2024-25 season. He had two goals against the Edmonton Oilers and looked ready to take on the world. He finished with 26 goals and 37 assists for 63 points. The Flyers didn’t make the playoffs but Michkov was a bright spot.
Now, three games into the Flyers 2025-26 season, Michkov is still looking for his first point. He has three shots on goal over the nine periods and an overtime session. And at times he hasn’t quite looked as dazzling as he did a good chunk of last year. Head coach Rick Tocchet mentioned on Monday before the Florida game that Michkov suffered an ankle injury over the summer. It hasn’t kept him from playing, but his conditioning might not be up to snuff.
Tocchet also addressed Michkov’s ice time, acknowledging that because the Flyers were playing undisciplined and having to kill penalties, Michkov’s ice time was being affected and thus slightly reduced. So far he’s had ice times of 14:54, 13:27, and 14:56 against Florida, Carolina, and Florida again. He’s struggling a little bit. It’s leaving some wondering why Michkov didn’t hit the ground running. And why is it happening now?
Droughts have happened before
Well, those sounding the alarms should probably take a look at Michkov’s rookie season a little deeper. Michkov played 80 games last year. But of those 80, he had some droughts. In fact, he had a handful of them. From Oct. 27 to Nov. 2, Michkov didn’t register a point against the Canadiens, the Bruins (twice) and the Blues. Then from Dec. 12 to Dec. 28, the Mad Russian went seven games without hitting the scoresheet. This seven-game drought included games against Detroit (twice), Minnesota, Los Angeles (where he went minus-4 in plus/minus), Columbus, Pittsburgh (-3), and Anaheim. Again, it wasn’t seen as a huge issue as a rookie is going to go through some growing pains, regardless of the talent level Michkov possesses.
Following a Dec. 29 game in Los Angeles where he scored once and added an assist to snap the seven-game streak, Michkov went on a five-game pointless streak from Dec. 31 to Jan. 9. The competition in that run of games included San Jose, Vegas, Toronto (twice), and Dallas. One trend thus far from last season (and has continued into this year so far) is that every pointless streak has included two games against the same team. That trend was also a part of a seven-game streak from Jan. 23 to Feb. 4 as the Flyers faced the Rangers, the Islanders (twice), the Devils (twice), Colorado and Utah.
As is well documented, Michkov came out of the gates following the 4 Nations Face-Off flying, with three consecutive multi-point games. Unfortunately he endured one final drought near the homestretch. A six-game streak from March 9 to March 20 saw him going dry against New Jersey, Ottawa, Tampa Bay (twice), Carolina, and the Capitals. So over the course of five different pointless streaks in 2024-25, Matvei Michkov went 29 games without a point. If you break that down further (and not factoring in other games where he went without a point), that means Michkov managed to score 63 points in the other 51 games, well over a point-per-game average.
There’s still some impact
So, with this current season three games old, Michkov has no points against the defending Cup champions in Florida (twice) while going pointless against Carolina. It’s nothing that we haven’t seen before. The timing isn’t the best, but it happens. It might be a bit of a shock considering the expectations fans had for the second-year winger and how many believed he would be paired with Trevor Zegras in 5-on-5 situations. That still might be the case at some point, but for now Michkov is with Sean Couturier coming off a four-point night and Travis Konecny.
As well, the expectations Michkov put on himself during the exit interviews surprised many including Flyers general manager Danny Briere. But one has to realize he’s recovering from an ankle problem and his conditioning is still a work in progress.
Michkov looked as dreadful as his linemates in the opening period against Carolina over the weekend. He looked a bit better against Florida on Monday night. Taking into account we now know he has been battling an injury, it’s evident Michkov is most likely going to get out of this streak sooner than later. It’s only three games, but the victory over Florida was also his best game thus far. Michkov played under 15 minutes but when he was on the ice at 5-on-5, the Flyers had 71.43 percent of the shot attempts and 70.68 percent of the expected goals share. With that level of control of play, the scoring will come eventually — the Flyers are having the vast majority of scoring chances with Michkov on the ice, but it’s just not coming off his stick right now.
There are still signs of life. Through these three games, Michkov has registered a total of 0.54 expected goals according to Natural Stat Trick. His raw shot totals are not that pretty — just the three on goal and four attempts overall — but the quality of those chances are much better than someone like Trevor Zegras, who has five shots on goal but just 0.34 expected goals in total. Michkov is just waiting for the right time to try his shot and while it’s something we don’t like to see, it’s understandable if there’s still some lasting effects after his injury recovery delayed his offseason training.
Lighter schedule incoming?
Perhaps one blessing for the Flyers and Michkov in October is that they have no back-to-back games this month. It’s an exception to a ridiculously concentrated next few months where back-to-backs are the rule, not the exception. Also, Philadelphia have the advantage of a very friendly travel schedule in October. They travel to Ottawa for a game Oct. 23. But that game is bookended by three more games in Philadelphia before facing the Sentators and three more games after the fact. So the travel is very light, leaving Michkov with a lot of time to concentrate on getting healthier and getting his game up to his high standards. It also will come with some practice time that should only make Michkov’s conditioning greater.
Overall, it’s just a matter of time before Michkov gets going and begins looking like the Michkov of 2024-25. This is not excusing the lackluster play overall coming from the 20-year-old superstar, but it is understandable that it is just going to maybe come with a few bumps in the road; something we’ve seen before.
