NHL Rumors: Is There Some Truth to the Matvei Michkov Report Out of Philadelphia?

The situation between Matvei Michkov and the Philadelphia Flyers came to a head this week. As Full Press Hockey reported in a Kevin Weekes report, the young forward would be open to a change of scenery and a fresh start. That does not mean a trade request has been filed. In fact, the Flyers were caught off guard by it all.

Everyone is trying to do damage control after the report came out. There have been public denials, but the report got out, and it came from somewhere. Again, Kevin Weekes is well respected and just doesn’t make things up. So there is some validity to the report despite the public denials.

As Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio stated on Wednesday, he has no doubt the report is accurate, but the Flyers see Matvei Michkov as a piece long-term in Philadelphia.

Full Press Hockey Transcriptions

Steve Kouleas: “But joining us now to get into the silly season stuff before U.S. Thanksgiving, our good friend SiriusXM NHL Network Fourth Period Insider Dave Pagnotta. Dave, I’m on your site. Beautiful site, by the way. I recommend it to everybody. Thefourthperiod.com, Fourth with an F-O-U-R-T-H. Your front page item is Matvei Michkov. What is going on? He told reporters he’s all good in Philadelphia and Edmonton today. What’s the truth? Welcome.”

Dave Pagnotta: “Thanks, Kooli. Look, I don’t want to go against what some guys are saying, and what they’ve said publicly. But behind closed doors, it seems like it’s a different environment and a different situation. And (Kevin) Weekes was the first one to put out the report yesterday (on Tuesday). That he may be looking for a change of scenery. I believe that to be the case.

Now, it did catch the Flyers a little bit by surprise when that report came out because the message wasn’t necessarily well, not necessarily, it wasn’t related to the Flyers team and to management, and everybody’s doing what they can to kind of cushion what’s going on there. But talking to a lot of people around this particular situation, including those within the organization, there is a strong belief that the report on Michkov is accurate, and that he would want a change of scenery.

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Now, given the circumstances that have occurred to this point. Do they sit down? I believe there was a conversation today (Wednesday) between the player and the team management and coaching to kind of figure out how they got to this point and what they can do to kind of calm the waters, remedy things, and smooth things over.

That’s still very much a possibility, but for this type of information to get out, and for look, it’s not like we haven’t seen frustration from Michkov before, and obviously before the season, but also obviously evident on the ice. There are some issues there with his competitiveness; it has created some of the issues we’ve seen on camera during games.

But again, it’s his competitive nature that’s trying to have him excel, have his team excel, and the frustrations just sometimes they boil over. Has he demanded a trade? No. Has he told the team he doesn’t want to be a Flyer anymore? I don’t think so.

Despite what may have been said by both him and the head coach, Rick Tocchet, earlier today (Wednesday), I believe the report is fully accurate, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that this will end in a trade. They can still try to smooth things over. I think that’s what the goal is, and that’s what the Flyers want to do: make sure that this works out to the point where he stays with the club, is comfortable there, and is one of their key cogs moving forward.”

Full Press Hockey Analysis: As the old saying goes, where there is smoke, there is fire. Something is going on in Philadelphia between the Flyers and Matvei Michkov. Again, nobody is coming out to refute the Kevin Weekes report from Tuesday night. Everyone who covers the game has been adding substance to it.

Meanwhile, the Flyers, GM Daniel Briere, head coach Rick Tocchet, and Michkov himself have denied the trade report. From all indications, the Flyers have no interest in trading Michkov, who is a restricted free agent at the end of the season. Briere made that clear. They are trying to smooth things over with Michkov.

However, this situation keeps coming up. So there is something to it. Again, there are no sides here as to what happened. Everyone is at fault. However, it’s clear the organization’s approach to developing young players is playing a role. But it is a situation worth watching because this isn’t going away, even though the temperature was cooled down a bit this week.

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