Sometimes, there is a burden in being a great athlete. Philadelphia is not always the easiest city to play in. We have high expectations for our teams. When they fail, we boo if we think they didn't play hard enough, and we want to burn it all down. Phillies fans aren't quite sure what to do with their team right now as the offseason begins. Eagles fans want to praise Nick Sirianni after every win and run him out of town after every loss or every win that was "too close". It's what we do.
For fans of the Flyers, we have been kind of lost for a while. For roughly 20 years, the postseason was pretty much our birthright. It was bound to happen. For the last 10 years, it happened rarely and all too briefly. For the last four years, it hasn't happened at all. What we needed was someone to bring us out of the doldrums of our sorrow.
When the Flyers drafted Matvei Michkov, he was projected to be one of the best young players in the league. Many experts felt that he'd be the steal of the 2023 Draft. When he finally arrived in 2024, Daniel Briere warned us. He told us all not to expect him to be "the savior". After all, that's a lot of pressure to put on the shoulders of a 19-year-old kid who had never played in America before.
Last season, Michkov had a pretty decent rookie season. He scored 26 goals with 37 assists. He led the Flyers with goals and was second on the team in assists and points, only to Travis Konecny. He also tied Konecny in power-play goals (8) and assists (9). Despite all of this, he finished a distant fourth in the Calder Trophy voting. Either way, Flyers fans knew in their hearts that they had a star player in the making, and it would only get better from here.
And Yet...
Then there is the other side of Michkov, which we saw shades of last season. Former head coach John Tortorella benched him several times in a game and twice for a whole game. There were "things" that Tortorella wanted Michkov to learn by watching them from the press box. He felt the youngster had potential, but was not yet complete. He had great instincts, but lacked some things when it came to setting up a play or the defensive aspects of his game.
This year, we are seeing something similar. In 14 games, Michkov has scored just twice and has seven assists. If you were to extrapolate that for a whole season. That's only 12 goals with 29 assists. While the assist total is nice, the goal total....Yikes! He's also playing, on average, two minutes less a game than last season. On the power play, he's been non-existent, registering just one assist.
Just like with Tortorella, new head coach Rick Tocchet has also found the need to sit Mitckhov down to watch. Tocchet feels that Michkov needs work when it comes to decision making with the puck, play smarter on defense, and play a faster style of offense to better utilize his speed.
So, when it comes to Michkov, we are left with three options:
The first is the easiest to stomach. Perhaps it is that Michkov is just 20 years old and has a lot more to learn. The more he plays, the more he'll learn, and the better he'll be. He's not a complete player, but will learn over time and grow into the player we all believe he can be. In the meantime, we need to temper our expectations.
The second option is that he is not as good as we think he is. He has talent, but is one-dimensional. He'll be a decent player and perhaps a good one. However, he'll never be dominant, and he'll never be a game changer. However, he could end up becoming a solid piece in the Flyers' arsenal of players. Instead of being the centerpiece, he'll just be a piece.
The third option is the scariest. Maybe he is uncoachable. He might be one of those players who has believed his own hype so much that he thinks he is better than he really is. We've seen players like this before. They are going to do what they want to do and play how they want to play, no matter who coaches them. We've seen shades of this in Philly before (Carson Wentz, Ben Simmons, Alexander Daigle). Talent matters a lot, but heart sometimes matters more.
If it is just the fact that Michkov is young and still learning, that's fine. It will work itself out in time, hopefully. If it is that too much was expected out of him, we might be able to stomach it. If he is uncoachable, then it might be best to cut ties while he is still worth something.
Time will tell, of course, and it would be prudent to be patient. At the same time, his development is worth watching this season. Have we already seen the best of him, or is the best still yet to come?