Early in the evening on Sept. 11, SKA St. Petersburg announced that Philadelphia Flyers prospect Matvei Michkov would be going back to his former club HK Sochi on loan for the remainder of the 2023-24 season. The official announcement followed initial reports by Hockey News Hub that Michkov would be loaned pending confirmation.
This loan move is definitely good news for both Michkov and the Flyers, because the young star did not start his season on the right foot, to no fault of his own. The 18-year-old was a healthy scratch through two games, and when he made his debut, he played only six minutes before getting scratched again immediately after.
In 27 games with HK Sochi in the KHL last year, Michkov scored nine goals, 11 assists, and 20 points. His production was frankly excellent, especially for his age, but it’s worth nothing he wasn’t particularly keen to return to Sochi. Sochi head coach Dmitry Kokorev had revealed that Michkov did not want to return because everything there reminded him of his father, who tragically passed away in Sochi this past April at the age of 51.
It is a terrible situation for Michkov to be in, quite honestly, but he now at least has the opportunity to get a ton of playing time at the KHL level with a team he’s familiar with and a coach he knows. Things with SKA and head coach Roman Rotenberg were going nowhere fast, and the Vice President of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation was not willing to scratch his KHL lackeys to fit a teenager into his lineup.
Of course, Michkov still has a long season ahead, but there’s now plenty reason for Flyers fans to be excited again now that the young star will actually get to play. Get the popcorn ready, because in the not-so-distant future, we’ll be able to watch new Michkov highlights again.