May 13, 2026
Matvei Michkov seemed eager to just move on.
Not from the year the Flyers as a team just had, that breakthrough into the playoffs and everything that came with it, was a rollercoaster.
But personally, the 21-year-old was dissatisfied.
He was scratched for Game 5 of the first-round series against Pittsburgh, and then again for Game 4 against Carolina in the second round, which saw the team's season end with an overtime loss and a 4-0 sweep.
And outside of his assist on Cam York's Game 6 winning goal to put away the Penguins, to put it bluntly, he was pretty invisible in the playoffs, and seemed to know it, going as far as admitting that he was "a little bit ashamed" that he couldn't score in the big moments for all the young fans he saw wearing his No. 39 jersey.
It was just a tough season for Michkov. That dreaded sophomore slump got him, and it was rife with polarization and perceived drama from outside of the building about his usage, the validity of his playoff scratchings, and the strength of his relationship with head coach Rick Tocchet.
Michkov's exit-day interview at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees on Tuesday didn't exactly help to nullify any of that outside noise either, as he danced around or outright passed on questions about how he assessed his season and what his specific training plans were for the summer.
What was clear walking away from it, though, is that he does want to get straight to work and come back much better for the Flyers next year.
He even hopped right onto the ice after he was done talking to the media on Tuesday, which head coach Rick Tocchet, when he took his turn to speak on Wednesday, said he couldn't help but be impressed by.
"It's pretty cool," Tocchet said.
"I mean, I'd rather him not skate. I want him to take a break," he cracked. "But I'm not gonna tell him what to do, because him going and shooting pucks yesterday is something he knows, it's something that...it's almost like a vengeance tour, and I love that.
"I think every player should have some kind of motivation in their head to prove anybody wrong. I think that's really important."
And Michkov seems to know it.
Matvei Michkov finished with 26 points down the stretch of the regular season.
Michkov's second season can really be broken up into three parts on the ice: before the Olympic break, after it, and the playoffs.
Before the Olympic break was a rough time. He looked a step slower, wasn't flashing that same kind of skill like he did as a rookie, and seemed to struggle finding his fit into Tocchet's system as the new head coach, which came with the constant sore point of Michkov falling behind in his training last summer.
After the Olympic break was a massive difference. He tried to catch up as much as he could in the gym with the time off, and when the schedule resumed, Michkov finished strong down the stretch of the regular season with 22 points (7 goals, 15 assists) and a plus-7 rating through 26 games, which helped the Flyers as they were making that final push after the playoff spot.
But then they finally got there, the pace of play went to another level (that was new for most of the team), and Michkov went back to struggling.
That's common for young players still trying to find their way as pros, but because it was Michkov, who carries the weight of being a seventh-overall draft pick, a critical piece to the Flyers' grand rebuild ambitions, and the ceiling of being a future star, it garnered a lot more attention.
Tocchet recognized that.
"It's his first playoff run," the coach said. "He's a second-year player. I think if it happened to another young guy, nobody would really say anything, but it's the pressure of that. We just gotta let this kid breathe, because I think he's made a lot of strides."
"The kid wants it, don't get me wrong," Tocchet continued at another point. "But you have to understand, he's 21 years old. He wants it, but hey, we have the tools to help him. That's a thing that this summer, and for him, he's already got all these different plans, which is great, and we have these tools that can help. So we gotta remember, he's 21 years old."
His veteran teammates knew the feeling.
When the Flyers' leadership of Sean Couturier, Travis Sanheim, and Travis Konecny took their turns to speak on Wednesday, they each called back to how hard it was when they first broke into the NHL, and that was just as North American prospects. Michkov came over from Russia, and neither of them could imagine how much harder it would've been if there was a language barrier to get over, too.
They all gave Michkov credit for that. They said he's been working on his English and trying to communicate and be more around the team off the ice.
And they know, too, he wants to be great, and that ultimately, his struggles this year will bring him forward.
"He's a guy that's always putting in the work," Konecny said. "He's always in the shooting room, he's always on the ice doing extra stuff. So that part of it's there. It's just trying to find where he's comfortable, at dinner, whatever it is to help him get to that next step.
"It takes time for some guys, you know? And I couldn't imagine going over and trying to understand Russian for two years. I'd be pretty lost at times, too. But when he's doing the good things, and he's scoring goals and he's making good plays, you just make sure you're there to pat him on the back like, 'Hey, this is the good stuff. This is the stuff, you do this over and over, you'd be a heck of a player.'"
Michkov, already, seemed eager to just move on.
And get right to work.
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