NHL | Matvei Michkov leads influx of talent from Russia

Fears of not being able to get Matvei Michkov out of Russia and a lack of reliable on-field scouting caused the talented winger to slide down a few spots in the 2023 draft. In a rebuild, the Philadelphia Flyers drafted him with the seventh pick in total, saying they are ready to wait for Michkov to finish his last three years of contract in the KHL.

Two years earlier than expected, the Flyers brought Michkov to North America and he could play his first game in the Bettman circuit as early as Friday. He could also be Russia’s best hope since the arrival of Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin in 2005.

The 19-year-old skater is part of the newest contingent of Russian talent, which continues to flow into the NHL despite the war in Ukraine and the lack of an agreement on international transfers between the KHL and the NHL.

“It’s good that guys aren’t afraid to try a season here, away from their parents and friends,” Winnipeg Jets prospect Nikita Chibrikov, 21, said last month at an event organized by the NHL Players’ Association to promote the league’s rookies.

“It’s very difficult. You come to another country. For us it’s like another world, added Chibrikov. Some don’t speak the language. It’s like you’re trying to live another life. »

Michkov was the second of 23 players from Russia selected by NHL teams in 2023. In the last draft, 24 players were added to this total.

In 2022, the first year of the draft since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, 20 players from that country were selected.

The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has since banned Russia and its ally Belarus from all its tournaments, including the World Juniors for 20 and under and 18 and under, which serve as a golden opportunity to unearth young talents. The NHL has also cut its business ties with Russia since the start of the war. His teams, due to travel bans and security concerns, have fewer scouts following teams in the KHL and other leagues in Russia.

Steven Warshaw, a marketing executive who worked in Moscow in the 1990s for the Pittsburgh Penguins, who then invested in a club after the fall of the Soviet Union, estimates that it makes 90% less screening in Russia than before the war. This cast a shadow over the players’ evaluation. He also adds that additional sums are being invested in order to keep their best players in Russia.

“They’re keeping several players who would normally jump here,” Warshaw said. No one wants to end up in Allentown making less than the league minimum salary. They would rather be in St. Petersburg, making hundreds of thousands of dollars and being stars, speaking their own language, eating food they are accustomed to, and generally being comfortable. »

That’s why Chibrikov, a 2021 second-round pick who made his NHL debut last season, is happy to see his compatriots take the same risk he took. He spent most of the last campaign in the American League with the Manitoba Moose, also based in Winnipeg.

If Michkov goes directly to the NHL, others, like Ivan Miroshnichenko, first pick of the Washington Capitals in 2022, spent the last campaign between NHL and AHL. This could well be how his next few months will go. Another Flyers prospect, Belarusian goaltender Alexei Kolosov, could start the season in Allentown, Pa., with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. However, he should be the first goalie recalled and the organization holds him in high esteem.

The Flyers managed to get Michkov out of Russia ahead of schedule, but had to wait nearly two years for goaltender Ivan Fedotov, who signed an NHL contract in May 2022. Shortly before winning the States United States, Fedotov was kidnapped by Russian authorities and taken to a military base in the Arctic Circle for a year of military service.

Fedotov played last season with CSKA Moscow, the KHL’s other rich franchise along with SKA St. Petersburg, before seeing his contract abruptly terminated last spring. With the field now clear, he joined the Flyers, with whom he recently signed a contract extension.

“When people ask how these guys got out, the simple answer is money,” Warshaw said.

Michkov, through Chibrikov, said he was “very grateful to the general manager and the Flyers organization” and was very excited to wear this uniform.

Having Fedotov and Egor Zamula in his entourage should help his acclimatization to Philadelphia, which he described as very beautiful — in English.

Zamula, whose adaptation to the WHL upon his arrival in 2017 was very difficult, leaving him practically in tears upon his return home, where he only had a chair and a television to hold him company, hopes to be able to make life easier for Michkov, much like Ovechkin has done with Miroshnichenko and other Russians over the years.

“It’s my turn now, because I know how difficult it is, to do my best to make him comfortable here,” Zemula said. It’s different, that’s for sure, but he’ll get through it. »

Associated Press reporter Dan Gelston in Voorhees, New Jersey, contributed to this report.