Did The Flyers Finally Hit A Home Run In The Draft Or Could Outside Factors Derail It?

It was off the charts when Danny Briere announced that, for the first time in as long as many can remember the Flyers were swinging for the fences with a high risk-high reward type of pick.

Matvei Michkov is an intriguing pick for many reasons, but most seem to value his offense. His skating is quite a bit above average and his shot can be lethal, according to many prospect watchers. Most had him as the second-best prospect talent-wise in this draft behind only Connor Bedard. His defense will be the area of his game that needs to most adjustment; especially if he's going to be playing under John Tortorella.

So if his defense is the biggest worry in his game, how and why did he slip all the way down to 7th to give the Flyers the chance to select him?

My least favorite subject is politics and economics, but it's a topic that has to come up in this situation because his fall in the rankings is very likely due to skepticism and the uncertainty by other teams that the country of Russia holds at the moment.

Before the war in Ukraine, economic and political issues all became the norm in Russia in February/March of 2022, it was already difficult getting players to come over from the KHL. With the newest challenges, it's become even more so because their government has seen fit to step in on some occasions.

The Flyers and their fans know this all too well as they have a Russian goalie prospect, Ivan Fedatov, that they may never see put on a Flyers jersey because shortly after he signed his NHL contract last summer, he was arrested and sentenced to serve military time for evading military duty.

To be fair, there have not been any reports that Michkov is in danger of having the same thing that happened to Fedatov happen to him, but the Russian government is obviously extremely unpredictable, so preparing for anything is likely best.

Michkov, through translators, made it abundantly clear he prefers to be a Flyer. When asked if he would use the fact he was passed over by six other teams and dropped all the way to seventh as motivation to prove them all wrong, the prospect said "Honestly, no because I wanted to be a Flyer."

This is obviously a line he could have used with any team regardless of who selected him, but the fact that despite his young age, he clearly knows how to endear himself to Flyers fans and he genuinely seemed sincere is a plus.

He endeared himself to the front office as well. Everyone was aware the Flyers were planning to meet with the potential superstar when they got to Nashville for the draft, but it was revealed that he had made a trip to Vorhees, NJ last Sunday and met with the front office there in a secret meeting as well. In both meetings between prospect and team, according to Briere, Michkov made it clear he wanted to be a Flyer and convinced the entire staff he was their guy if he was available at pick #7.

After the selection, Michkov was asked when he expected to be in the NHL, via a translator he said, that he didn't have an exact time, but that it would be "very soon". He is under contract in the KHL for the next 3 seasons. Jamey Baskow reported he could potentially get out of the contract before the end of the 3 years, but I think the sole question is, given what happened with Fedatov last summer, do we want to push that luck?

Those that followed the story know KHL contract or not doesn't truly matter. When it happened to Fedatov last summer, his KHL contract was up. He didn't ask to get out of it or break it, he just waited for it to be done, but the front office for his KHL team wasn't willing to let him go, so they reportedly turned him in to authorities for evading military duty.

As stated above, there are no reports this is a danger with Michkov, but unpredictability and desperation could be a huge concern.

Briere said he doesn't have an answer for when Michkov will be in the NHL yet, either, but the team is willing to wait for as long as it takes.

Michkov is a player with a ton of upside, superstar potential and if he pans out, the exact type of BOOM the Flyers have needed for a while, but their biggest challenge may not be his overall development but instead their plan to get him out of Russia to ensure there's no repeat performance of the 2022 off-season.