NHL
Russian hockey club SKA St. Petersburg is releasing Matvei Michkov from his contractual obligations on Monday, freeing him up to join the Flyers organization for the 2024-25 season, a team source and league sources confirmed Sunday.
The release will be granted on compassionate grounds, a league source said.
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CAA’s JP Barry and Pat Brisson secured the rights to represent Michkov a few weeks ago and are working in collaboration with agent Paul Theofanous to have Michkov released. Michkov, 19, could join the Flyers in the United States in as little as one to two weeks, depending on the visa process, after his release.
The Flyers drafted Michkov with the seventh pick in the 2023 NHL Draft. The Flyers assumed he would not be available to them until the 2026-27 season, due do his contractual obligations with SKA, but reports out of Russia in recent weeks suggested that Michkov might be available to the Flyers as soon as next season.
The next step for the Flyers will be getting Michkov signed to a standard entry-level contract. Flyers general manager Daniel Briere said he believes Michkov would have been ready for the NHL last season had he been able to play in the U.S. right away.
Were it not for Michkov’s KHL deal, “he probably would have gone second or third in the draft and was probably ready to play pro immediately,” Briere said in April.
The Flyers could certainly use another scoring winger in their lineup, particularly on the right wing, as only Travis Konecny is a legitimate high-end threat on that side of the ice (assuming Owen Tippett and Tyson Foerster remain as left wings). He could also give a boost to their abysmal power play, which has finished last in the league in each of the last two seasons.
The Flyers are scheduled to hold their prospect development camp from July 2-6 at their training facility. It’s uncertain whether Michkov will make it to North America in time to take part.
Michkov spent the bulk of the last two seasons playing with Sochi in the KHL, which is affiliated with SKA. In 47 games in 2023-24, he posted 19 goals and 22 assists for 41 points. He played just one game for SKA, going scoreless, before he was assigned to Sochi.
(Photo: Maksim Konstantinov / SOPA Images / Sipa USA)
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