The Philadelphia Flyers did their best to lower the temperature around Matvei Michkov after a report emerged that he wanted to be traded. General manager Danny Brière gave a press conference to deny the report, head coach Rick Tocchet and Michkov himself gave their side of the story, and then they played arguably their best game of the year against the Oilers in Edmonton.
Things are calmer than they were just 48 hours ago, but there needs to be more clarity on the whole situation.
That’s exactly what Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman did as someone who isn’t employed by the Flyers and doesn’t have a specific desire to calm everyone down about the situation, but also won’t speculate unnecessarily about it. Fortunately, he clarified all the reasons why a trade wouldn’t happen and the Flyers committed to Michkov.
Why the Flyers won’t trade Matvei Michkov
On Thursday morning’s episode of 32 thoughts: the podcastFriedman took a deep dive into the situation in Philadelphia with Michkov. From the start, he made it clear that there was no chance the Flyers would randomly trade the 21-year-old winger because of what happened this week. And how there are so many factors and reasons why they will stay by his side.
“Daniel Briere and the Flyers will prioritize Michkov and do what they can to make it work,” Friedman said. “Here’s my argument for why: This is a team that already traded Cutter Gauthier. … They traded him and you can’t trade that kind of offensive talent twice, without doing everything in your power to make it work. Daniel Briere knows that.
“Number two, and I’ve seen this reported in several places and I think it matters to the Flyers, in the offseason, they told him ‘We need you to do two things.’ Number one, as every Philly fan knows, show up in better shape. Number two, improve his English so he can do more interviews and more communication with his teammates and his coaches and the fans in English. He did both of those things.
“Brière feels, and I believe it’s absolutely true, that if they ask Michkov to do this, he does it, and then they start hammering him, the player will feel that the effort he done is not rewarded. Brière takes this very seriously. We asked him to do it, he did it. SO We I need to show a lot more tolerance and understanding towards him and reward him. I think it’s very important in Brière’s mind.
It’s perfectly clear.
The Flyers will do everything they can to make this deal with Michkov work. Whatever they need to do to elevate him and give him the opportunity to become the superstar that he can, that’s what they’re going to try to do. Because of the past mistakes surrounding Cutter Gauthier and the perception it would give if they were to seriously mess up the situation with another offensive stud, they are not going to give up on him.
Then Michkov clearly put in the right amount of work on and off the ice to make things better this season. The Flyers need to reward him for that effort and that doesn’t mean sending him elsewhere when they go through some turmoil.
Fortunately, Briere has some experience at a young star forward who didn’t have much success right away.
Brière’s experience with MacKinnon currently concerns Michkov
Friedman then mentioned that someone called him and explained how, during his final year in the NHL, Briere had played with 19-year-old Nathan MacKinnon in his second season for the future Hart Trophy winner, where he scored just 14 goals and 38 points in 64 games. The mystery caller connected MacKinnon during a difficult year for the Avalanche and for him as an individual to what Michkov is currently experiencing with the Flyers.
“But overall, Briere sees a common thread between the 19-year-old MacKinnon and the 21-year-old Michkov. Two very, very headstrong, talented players who needed to be figured out and understood. And this person said to me, ‘Don’t underestimate how much Briere thinks about this and compares the two.’ So he sees Michkov as a long-term investment and so does Keith Jones. … They are united in the feeling that he “He’s a 21-year-old player who will be better at 23 and better at 25. And especially after trading Gauthier, there’s a feeling of ‘We can’t give up on this guy too soon.’
MacKinnon is known as one of the most competitive players in the entire NHL. He would do anything to be able to lift the Stanley Cup every year. Michkov has a bit of this same desire to be the best player on the planet and to lead his team to achieve the same glory. Now, because MacKinnon was able to play for the Colorado Avalanche and be surrounded by more talent, the growing pains were less.
In this second year for MacKinnon he had teammates like captain Gabe Landeskog, Jarome Iginla, Alex Tanguay, Erik Johnson, Matt Duchene, Ryan O’Reilly, Tyson Barrie, Max Talbot and of course Briere. It’s a long list of either veterans who are brimming with leadership qualities and could mentor the young star, or 20-something players like Duchene and O’Reilly who could support him more on the ice.
The Flyers situation should be pretty similar but just on a lesser amount of talent and that translates into lower results.
Nevertheless, the Flyers are committed and the Avalanche certainly did not think about trading MacKinnon for a second when he was having some difficulties. He didn’t even come close to being a point-per-game player until his fifth NHL season. The Flyers will give Michkov the space he needs.
“My thesis is that Briere sees the talent and he’d rather keep Michkov too long, rather than dump him too soon. He sees the big picture. He knows what he saw in Colorado and he says ‘I’ll bet.’ It may take longer than anyone wants, including Michkov, but I’m betting on talent.”
How the Kevin Weekes report could have happened
Friedman then wanted to clarify that Kevin Weekes did not make up the initial report out of thin air. Clarification of this connection between Michkov and Weekes sharing the same agent in Paul Theofanus. The series of events could very well have been, according to Friedman, that Michkov was probably frustrated after the bench exploded in Vancouver and he or someone in his camp said he was done in Philadelphia. Then, when it “turned into a firestorm, people ran for cover.”
“I guarantee you that someone, whether it was Michkov or someone around him, was angry, upset, (saying) ‘I’ve had enough of this’ – it’s emotional, it happens. Then it happened to Kevin and he reported it as such.”
Friedman then discusses a very similar situation that happened to him and Weekes. Josh Anderson wanted to leave the Blue Jackets after becoming frustrated with his situation, but no one told Columbus general manager Jarmo Kekalainen and he became angry with Friedman. Anderson was eventually traded – we don’t know when this report took place – but he was also a player who put in several years of effort with the Blue Jackets and was traded to the Montreal Canadiens as a 26-year-old restricted free agent. Fortunately, the situation is a little different and hopefully the Flyers can do a better job of keeping a talented player than the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The only thing with this timeline is that when Briere spoke to the media Wednesday night, he specifically stated that Theofanus told him the report didn’t come from him. The shared agent theory of how this happened to Weekes (and no one else) is pretty questionable given this information.
But that’s where we are right now. There are still major questions about how this report was put together, but the Flyers are adamant that they will not move on from Michkov. Now, will they take corresponding steps to make this season less difficult for Michkov on and off the ice? We’ll see.
Gn sports
