While the Philadelphia Flyers had a successful regular season and playoffs, it has not been a good year for Matvei Michkov. According to Charlie O’Connor of PHLY Sports, Michkov was practicing on the Flyers’ fifth forward unit this morning, meaning he’ll likely be in the press box for Game 5.
This has largely been the status quo all season for the former seventh-overall pick. During the regular season, it became clear that head coach Rick Tocchet was purposefully cutting Michkov’s ice time. The organization cited an off-season ankle injury and his poor physical condition during training camp.
There’s no indication his loss of ice time motivated him to play better, either. After scoring 26 goals and 63 points in 80 games under John Tortorella during the 2024-25 season, Michkov fell to 20 goals and 51 points in 81 games this season. Although it’s not uncommon to go through a “sophomore slump” at the professional level, no underlying metrics indicate Michkov took meaningful steps elsewhere.
Additionally, while his teammates were ready for the pressure, Michkov looked totally unprepared for postseason hockey. He is one of only two Philadelphia forwards, the other being Tyson Foerster, to have not registered a point in the series against their intrastate rivals, and has the lowest PDO on the team.
Through the first four games of the series, Tocchet was only putting Michkov out there for approximately 10 minutes of ice time per night. Now, Tocchet is apparently of the belief that not having Michkov will give the Flyers a better chance to close out the series in Pittsburgh, or is trying to send the youngster another message.
We go all regular season without the nonsense and Tocchet does it now?
Well, maybe it’s the “Michkov looked totally unprepared for postseason hockey” part
I stand by my prediction that Michkov will ask to be traded this summer.
Trade him to Winnipeg