This year was in many ways defining for Matvey Michkov. At least it should have become so. Last summer, the 18-year-old Russian striker, who in recent years has been called perhaps the most talented hockey player of his generation and the main rising star of the country, went through the NHL draft ceremony and was selected in the first round, seventh overall, by the Philadelphia Flyers. Matvey was in no hurry to leave overseas — three more years of the current contract with St. Petersburg SKA oblige Michkov to continue building his career in Russia.
But he has not yet managed to reach the adult level as part of the army team. As soon as the official start of the KHL season was announced, Michkov changed his club registration. The striker will continue his career in Sochi on loan. Matvey spent most of last season in the south of Russia, and now he is repeating his path. Although on the sidelines of journalists there was talk that Michkov himself was not eager to return to the shores of the Black Sea. The reasons are obvious. However, the young forward will have to ignore sad memories and treat hockey professionally.
And if Michkov’s last business trip to Sochi did not raise any questions or doubts about its necessity, then it is difficult to give a specific assessment of his new loan.
On the other hand, Michkov has reached that age level when a striker of his caliber, with all the adjectives that suit him, must prove his abilities in a club of such a rank as SKA, where the requirements are higher and the competition is crazy. After all, it is in conditions of competition that an athlete becomes stronger — this is a well-known truth. But Matvey, it seems, lost it. In the new season, the 18-year-old forward played for SKA in only one match out of four played by the army team and received only a little over 6 minutes on the court, during which he obviously did not have time to prove himself.
The head coach of the St. Petersburg team, Roman Rotenberg, was asked several times about Michkov’s fate at SKA. There were reasons for this. As part of the pre-season training camp, Matvey received a lot of playing time, he was even entrusted with playing in the position of center forward — a role that in Russian hockey is considered to be in short supply for skilled and classy players. But Matvey coped with these tasks and received high marks. However, at the start of the KHL season the situation changed dramatically. In response to this, Roman Rotenberg rightly pointed out the high competition in his team and the need to withstand it if Michkov intends to get into the team. Failed. There is no point in looking for a catch and talking about a possible conflict of interest between a coach and a player.
«Matvey Michkov will continue the season in Sochi on loan. I think this is the right decision — Matvey has his whole career ahead of him, he now needs to play a lot with men, to harden up. He will have this opportunity in Sochi. We talked a lot with Matvey and came to a mutual decision that this is the best option for his career. Michkov is a player of the first or second line, first or second majority. We do not want to marinate Matvey in the reserves, we wish him maximum progress, we will closely monitor his play even at the first “We will be glad to see him in St. Petersburg,” Rotenberg wrote in his Telegram channel.
It remains a mystery how Philadelphia will react to such a development. Over the past week, American journalists have released several materials and openly worried about the future of the Russian forward, complementing these doubts with various conspiracy theories against Matvey. Now the Flyers' entourage can probably relax a little and just watch their prospect play.