A report by Kevin Weekes came out late on Tuesday that Matvei Michkov is unhappy with the Flyers and would like to be traded in order to have a fresh start. Normally, these kinds of things irk the fans because players can seem like Prima donnas, but in the case of Michkov, is there anyone not on his side here? The Flyers have totally failed him in every way possible.
When Michkov was selected in the 2023 Draft, it was with the assumption that he would be joining previous blue chip draft pick Cutter Gauthier as the crown jewels of a rebuild. At that point, Michkov didn’t know when he would be able to come over from Russia, but the wait could probably help things. Well, Michkov did his best to get out of his Russian contract as fast as possible and was playing in orange one year later. As for the Flyers, they screwed up their relationship with Gauthier so bad that he wasn’t even communicating with the team by the end. Apparently, he wanted to start playing in the NHL and the Flyers wouldn’t let him. Under the cover of secrecy and with no bidding process, Cutter was traded to Anaheim for 50 cents on the dollar. He scored 41 goals last year and is on pace for 74 this season!!! I know it’s fun to blame and hate Cutter (hell, I revel in it), but in retrospect it’s hard not to believe that this was the team’s fault rather than his.
Since then, the team hired former player Rick Tocchet to be the coach. I can’t say I am some kind of hockey expert, but I know that his brand of hockey is miserable to watch. The team barely scores, barely attacks, and has no idea how to hold on to a lead. It’s not like he was even good in previous coaching stops either. In 10 previous seasons, he had made the playoffs just twice. The team is currently off to one of the worst starts in franchise history and that isn’t even the problem!
The Flyers are made up of a bunch of solid role players who aren’t stars. They have been in desperate need of a guiding light for a while and even tried to force Leo Carlsson to Philadelphia to get one. Nothing worked. However, they did have Michkov and then Porter Martone waiting in the wings. The team needs them to work out sooo bad. What does Tocchet do then? Buries them.
Michkov is the team’s best player yet he gets the 6th most ice time on the front line. Martone? He’s 9th. Even worse is that when the games get close down the stretch, both are routinely benched. Is the team at least winning these games? NO WAY! They lose anyway. Great move, let’s keep doing it!
Last year, Tocchet came out during training camp and said that Michkov was out of shape. Whether this was true or a way of motivating the kid, it didn’t work. Michkov received the 10th most minutes, was never given a long leash, and slumped the whole season. He came back this year 30 pounds lighter and is killing it. Still, Tocchet dogs him. What are we doing???
Well, maybe this is what you get when you hire former players with no experience to run the team. Danny Briere retired, came back to the Flyers, and was promoted pretty quickly to GM. There are certainly some things he is good at, particularly getting good value in trades, but there is clearly something missing here. His ability to navigate relationships and evaluate talent is a detriment to the team. Coming with Briere is another former player, Keith Jones. He spent 20 years in a broadcast booth after his playing career ended. He has to have some experience evaluating talent in an organization though, right? NOPE! This is who is running our team!
I’m ranting now because I am just so furious with the Flyers. Michkov will be a restricted free agent after the season and can sign an offer sheet with any team. Him leaving would give us draft picks, but it would also be devastating from a talent perspective. We would then have Briere and Jones screwing things up for another generation. This is not a serious organization in the least right now.
Photo: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license by Jenn G (cropped and edited)
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