Photo Credit: The Flyers
Finally, finally, the hockey season is right around the corner with Training Camp about to open on Thursday for the Flyers. Brent Flahr spoke to the media yesterday and he gave some good insight into Matvei Michkov and what scouts within the organization are looking for in certain prospects.
Matvei Michkov
Over the span of the past weeks there’s been some changes in Matvei Michkov’s on ice usage with SKA St Petersburg in the KHL, and it eventually led him being loaned to Sochi. The Flyers seventh overall draft pick went from centering the second and third lines for a handful of games during the preseason to receiving considerably less ice time in the last three to four outings the preseason for SKA, to include being a healthy scratch on August 25th for a preseason game. Moreover, his limited ice time filtered into the regular season as he has been a healthy scratch for three out of their first four games played. In his lone regular season game played he only registered 6:12 of ice time.
Such a change in how Michkov is being utilized with SKA presents question marks surrounding how the talented prospect may be handled as the KHL regular season begins and progresses. Obviously with Michkov playing in the KHL this season that leaves the Flyers with very little control over his development.
Michkov mania took over twitter after learning that he was loaned to Sochi in the KHL a day ago, a team he played for last season while registering nine goals and 11 assists in 27 games played. The location of Sochi might bring back bad memories of his dad’s tragic death, thus he wanted to make things work with SKA. Maybe now Michkov believes his dad would want him to get the proper development to improve his game, so SKA and Michkov mutually agreed on this loan to Sochi.
Well Michkov did not disappoint in his first game for Sochi, while registering 18:04 of ice time. He registered two assists, and also blocked one shot. Michkov is just so good offensively, it was great to see him garner time with the man advantage, as well. He tallied one assist on the power play for his efforts.
In his third game for Sochi yesterday he logged 15:41 of ice time, tallied an assist, registered one hit, and two blocked shots. The more he plays, the more his confidence grows. Flahr sounded off on him yesterday:
“Obviously he was frustrated (Lack of playing), but for him to move back to Sochi he just wants to play that’s all. Personally that’s all I care about (Him playing).” – Brent Flahr, Flyers Assistant General Manager
All spells good news moving forward for Michkov and his development. He needs ice time, it’s critical and imperative at the young age of 18-years-old. Hopefully, he continues to progress in a men’s league in the KHL with Sochi this season.
Scouting
One key takeaway that many are not reporting yesterday is what Brent Flahr and the rest of the organization has told some scouts within the organization. The Flyers top brass told scouts to focus more on “Speed”…”Team Speed” as Flahr described:
“Speed for sure. I think tram speed is something our scouts is told to watch for.” – Brent Flahr, Flyers’ Assistant General Manager
Flyers fans have been clamoring for years, the Flyers need more speed. It has become evident over the course of this past draft that speed was a primary target. In previous drafts, one can make an argument that size was a primary target, however, adding good skaters like Denver Barkey and Alex Čiernik (To name a few) maybe the Flyers are moving towards adding more or infusing more speed in their system.
Now will all these “Speedsters” pan out in the future? Maybe, maybe not, draft picks are a crapshoot. Some prospects will flourish over time, while some others will not pan out as planned or hoped. It does appear the Flyers are trying to right the ship speed wise throughout their system, as speed is the name of the game in the modern day NHL.
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