Photo Courtesy of Philadelphia Flyers PR
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. The 7th 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. Ideally if SKA were to continue giving Michkov limited ice time the best case scenario would result in the forward being loaned to another KHL team, similarly to last season, and that is exactly what transpired yesterday.
Michkov mania took over twitter after learning that he was loaned to Sochi in the KHL, 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.
Sochi usually isn’t very good in the khl, but it appears they might be better this season. Maxim Tretiak, the grandson of Soviet Union Vladisav Tretiak is Michkov’s teammate now.
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If something like that occurs once again it should be interesting to see how the remaining two seasons of Michkov’s KHL contract with SKA unfolds. One would assume the skilled prospect would not be very thrilled to continue to be loaned to other KHL teams. Specifically after committing to signing with SKA and wanting to play for that organization in particular.
Could the above scenario potentially spark the 7th overall draft pick to make his way to Philadelphia sooner than expected?
That’s a question that will likely be addressed as the next few years elapse. Ultimately, the most important thing for the talented forward is to receive enough ice time to continue developing his game at both ends of the ice throughout this upcoming KHL regular season.
