It's been just over a week since Philadelphia Flyers general manager Danny Briere met with the media ahead of the Flyers' win over the Washington Capitals. It was a somewhat impromptu press conference, sparked by comments made by head coach Rick Tocchet about rising star forward Matvei Michkov that were gaining national attention.
Flyers General Manager Daniel Briere met with the media from @XMobileArena prior to tonight's matchup with the Caps. pic.twitter.com/UxFxTTmkgI
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) February 4, 2026
Briere reassured fans that Michkov would not be going anywhere, that Tocchet's comments about missing treatments and the like were more generalizations about the team and not Michkov specifically. And while the losses piling up aren't great, management didn't expect the team to be vying for second or third in the Metropolitan Division all season. More or less, everything's fine, and Briere and President of Hockey Operations Keith Jones aren't overly concerned about the state of the team and the path they're on.
There were many important quotes from Briere during the press conference, but one stood out from the rest, regarding the relationship between Tocchet and Michkov and how they're working together.
"It's going to make him a better player along the way, and Rick Tocchet wants that. He wants to be here for the long haul to lead this team."
The way Briere phrased things made it sound as if, in a worst-case scenario, the organization was forced to choose between Michkov or Tocchet, they would go with the player. That could easily be written off as a slip. Later in the interview, in response to a question, Briere reiterated that, "Rick knows how important [Michkov] is to the future of the organization; he wants to make it work."
That should be reassuring to Flyers fans. It wasn't that long ago that former GM Chuck Fletcher picked his coach, Alain Vigneault, over the players after a disappointing playoff miss in the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season. That summer, Fletcher paid to get rid of Shayne Gostisbehere, swapped Jake Voracek for Cam Atkinson, and traded for Rasmus Ristolainen, among other moves — only to fire Vigneault just over a month into the season.
None of those players had the star potential that Michkov has. There's no reason to believe the relationship between Michkov and Tocchet is unsalvageable. A good summer from Michkov should rectify any bad first impression, but if the worst does come to pass, it seems like the Flyers front office will be prepared to part ways with the coach before they consider trading their franchise player.