Flyers’ brass (General Manager Danny Brière, President Keith Jones, and governor Dan Hilferty) headed to Edmonton for the road trip amid the latest Michkov drama.
This comes right after ESPN’s Kevin Weekes reported (from league sources) that Matvei Michkov would “likely want a fresh start elsewhere” due to the team’s poor start and “internal turmoil.” The report dropped after a visible heated exchange between Michkov and teammate Nick Seeler on the bench in Vancouver.
Brière (who had been at GM meetings and in Calgary) traveled back to Alberta specifically to meet with Michkov and address things. He and the others were at the morning skate in Edmonton. Rick Tocchet, Matvei Michkov, Nick Seeler, and Sean Couturier all spoke to media and downplayed everything:
- Tocchet called the trade report “not true” / “nothing to talk about” and said you can’t comment on something that’s just blogging.
- Michkov said he’s happy in Philly (“Yeah, of course”), doesn’t read the news, and just wants to focus on the game. He and Seeler both said the spat was just emotion in a competitive game and they’d already had dinner together.
- Brière later confirmed on a Zoom call that both Michkov and his agent denied the report originated from them, called it incorrect, and reiterated that Michkov is “part of the solution” with no plans to trade him.
There’s long-running tension around Tocchet’s usage of Michkov (ice time, public comments on conditioning last season, occasional scratches or reduced minutes). In a plot twist, he played over 20 minutes last night against Edmonton, 20:44 to be exact, a gain of 5:18 of ice time than his previous game against Vancouver on Monday night.
Michkov’s increase in ice time should come as no shock to anyone, but it becomes clearer that it was a topic of discussion between the Flyers top brass and Head Coach Rick Tocchet.
Of course, Michkov is still producing well this year (team-high goals, tied for points lead) while the Flyers have struggled badly overall. The brass showing up en masse in Edmonton is clearly about putting out the fire, backing the player, and making sure everyone is on the same page — which plenty of fans are reading as pressure on Tocchet to feature Michkov more prominently.
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