November 14, 2026
Eric Hartline/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Concern over Matvei Michkov's future in Philadelphia may carry through the rest of the season.
The Flyers have a back-to-back this weekend, at Columbus on Saturday, and then against Edmonton on Sunday in a return home to Xfinity Mobile Arena.
But the games themselves, to many fans, hardly feel like they matter right now.
The Flyers already played the Oilers in Edmonton Wednesday night and lost in overtime, 3-2. The argument is there that the Flyers played solid enough to win, but after 21 games of mostly lifeless and disconnected hockey, many don't really want to hear it.
They're 5-10-6 and are at an Eastern Conference-worst goal differential of minus-22. At this point, they're not going to salvage the season out of that.
And really, after this past week, the point of this season has shifted well away from playoff aspirations or anything to do with the standings. It's about Matvei Michkov, and the sudden scramble the Flyers have found themselves in to make sure that they can keep him, after ESPN's Kevin Weekes tossed out a bombshell report on Tuesday that the young Russian star has developed a preference for "a fresh start elsewhere."
In the wake of that report, general manager Danny Brière caught the next flight out to Edmonton to meet back up with his team and speak with Michkov. Wednesday night, before the Flyers played the Oilers, Brière met with the media over a Zoom call and outright denied the report as "not correct," while insisting that Michkov was still a part of the team's "solution for the future."
Michkov went on to skate 20:44 against the Oilers, which was his second-highest ice time total of the season. He had a secondary assist on Travis Sanheim's third-period crash into the net, and made an even slicker setup pass straight to the top of the crease earlier in the first period that Jamie Drysdale couldn't fully get a hold of, but then he got caught out there at the end for Edmonton's OT winner.
An amazing feed from Matvei Michkov to Jamie Drysdale. #Flyers pic.twitter.com/aO9LoqQid5
— Flyers Nation (@FlyersNation) November 12, 2026
But again, the loss itself is what it is at this point. It's become par for the course for this year's Flyers, who threw themselves down this hole.
The real takeaway was that Michkov got the most ice time of any Flyers forward just a day after the thought got out there that maybe he could eye an exit out of Philadelphia, and after Brière booked it out to Edmonton to calm things down.
Head coach Rick Tocchet, who has more fan ire than ever with his team spiraling and with yet another perceived Michkov dust-up to his tenure behind the Flyers' bench, said that wasn't because of any kind of directive from above on Friday, disagreeing with the idea that he wasn't deploying Michkov often enough already.
"Well, I don't know what you mean by not so many minutes," Tocchet said of Michkov, the team's leading scorer. "[He's played] like 16, 17 minutes. It's not like he's playing 12. No, there's been no message. They don't tell me what to do."
But this is a situation where it's exactly what it looks like.
Michkov leads the Flyers, by far, with 10 goals, and after Wednesday night in Edmonton, he leads them now in total points, too, with 15.
Monday, after the Flyers beat the Canucks 3-1 in Vancouver, Michkov's average ice time of 15:54 was easily the lowest of any other forward in the NHL who had 10 goals to that point, especially compared to the likes of Colorado superstar Nathan MacKinnon, Tampa Bay stalwart Jake Guentzel, and Anaheim youngster Becket Sennecke, who were all skating well above 20 minutes a night.
A couple of days later, with the Flyers rushing to perform damage control and now having to do everything they can to ensure that Michkov, as the foundational piece to their rebuild, stays put for the long haul, and his ice time suddenly spikes?
Sure.
The smoke isn't clear on this Michkov situation yet, and probably won't be until the 21-year-old signs a long-term deal, and even then, until Tocchet is fired in the eyes of many fans who have checked out on him.
In some ways, too, the Flyers might be paying for mistakes they made with Michkov earlier that they could've easily rectified.
A few more thoughts...
ESPN's Emily Kaplan followed up on Tuesday that Michkov hadn't put in a trade request and that the Flyers' front office was caught off guard by Weekes' "fresh start" report.
Wednesday morning, appearing on the Daily Faceoff's "Morning Cuppa Hockey" livestream, Kaplan talked more about the Michkov situation and went into how the Flyers originally tried to brace for the Russian language barrier and getting Michkov prepared to speak and do interviews in English.
Through Michkov's first two years, the Flyers had skating coach Slava Kuznetsov act as his interpreter, but never on a full-time basis. Former Flyers defenseman Egor Zamula also had a short run translating for Michkov, but got pulled away from it when the team deemed that it was affecting his own game. Michkov also had an English tutor available to him.
But the overall results from that have been bumpy.
Michkov is definitely more comfortable with his English, and started doing interviews and press scrums this season, but the scope of what he can comfortably say publicly still appears limited, and within the room, it might have still left him behind.
Said Kaplan about the subject:
"They were using what I believe was the skills coach as a translator, which a lot of people were wondering, 'Should you go get a full-time interpreter?' And I know that the Flyers actually called the Capitals and said, 'What did you do with Alex Ovechkin in his rookie year?'
"They (the Capitals) said, 'We forced him to do media, like we really thrust him into it. But we made sure that we were giving him resources behind the scenes to learn and get better. And last year, I'm fairly certain every morning, they worked with Michkov, like the social team or the video team would give him practice interview questions and giving him reps to get him comfortable for those moments.
"So if you wonder what it looks like behind the scenes, it's not just throwing him to the wolves. They're using their resources and trying to help the player...You can call it hand-holding, you can call it development, you can call it nurturing, whatever you want to call it. They definitely put in support, but clearly it has not been enough support that didn't lead to this disconnect." [Daily Faceoff]
Interesting tidbit from Emily Kaplan this morning discussing how the Flyers reached out to the Capitals over the summer to get advice on how to acclimate Michkov to North America pic.twitter.com/h5OjpZbiJr
— Top-Line Beagle🐶🏒 (@toplinebeagle) November 11, 2026
Taking cues from the Caps with a young Ovechkin might've been well-intentioned enough, but a key detail might've gotten lost in translation: The Caps kept a well-established Russian-speaking veteran in the locker room with him.
Through his first two years, Ovechkin had Dainius Zubrus to go to, and by the end of his third, he had Sergei Federov.
Who has Michkov had? Zamula, who the Flyers lost interest in as a project defenseman? Rodrigo Ābols, a Latvian who was only in the NHL for parts of two seasons? Andrei Kuzmenko, a deadline acquisition two years ago who the Flyers were never interested in keeping? Or Nikita Grebenkin, who's young himself and hasn't been seen all year?
The Flyers did do their part to move Michkov's family over to North America with him, but they never got that older presence like him or from where he's from that he could talk to or relate to, and maybe they're paying for that now.
Thing is, there is a notable Russian vet still out there that they could go out and grab.
Vladimir Tarasenko is still a free agent, and has won two Stanley Cups with St. Louis and Florida, both as a star goal-scorer and a further down the lineup depth piece.
The 34-year-old Russian should be someone the Flyers want in their room for Michkov right now. Not to mention, he scored 23 goals for Minnesota just last season. He can still produce a bit.
He might be waiting to latch on to a contender, which the Flyers aren't. But if Brière can make a call and a pitch to convince him, then it would be a few months for Tarasenko to get live reps in, be a short-term mentor to Michkov, and then they can work something out at the trade deadline.
Look, the season's already pretty much down the drain anyway. Try something to get the future stabilized again.
Vladimir Tarasenko can do a lot to help the Flyers now.
Thomas Shea/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Veteran defenseman Nick Seeler has become a focal point of Michkov worry, because of an argument he got into with Michkov by the bench during a stoppage Monday night in Vancouver that was captured by the NBC Sports Philadelphia broadcast, and because of previous postgame remarks the defenseman made about some players' selfishness after an Oct. 28 loss to Washington that Tocchet more directly angled at Michkov when he spoke.
Both Michkov and Seeler shrugged the argument and the overall developing controversy off after Wednesday's morning skate when the press could finally speak to them.
Wednesday night, though, Michkov broke down the wall with the puck in the second period and had a clear angle in toward the net if he kept his feet chopping.
He instead pulled up and threw back a between-the-legs pass over the middle to a hustling Seeler, who fell between two Oilers checkers to kill the play.
No Formal Breakdown here - Just found it hilarious that Michkov went so far out of his way to give Seeler this pass that he went between the legs to attempt it. Also not the right play here as you’d rather drive the net…. I’m sure the angry mob will have fun with this though pic.twitter.com/dPgNi06GS6
— Broad Street Breakout (@BroadStBreakout) November 12, 2026
Felt like a point was trying to get proven there.
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