With every passing minute, we are just waiting for any potential news of Matvei Michkov coming over and fulfilling his destiny to be a member of the Philadelphia Flyers.
Before, we were thinking we had to wait until the summer of 2026 for that to be a possibility but recent rumors of him being able to have his KHL contract with SKA St. Petersburg terminated and come overseas, has risen to the surface. Some reports have gone from concrete information to be factually believed, while other so-called reports have been just stringing together some clues to try and be so hopeful that there is a reason to watch the Flyers next season.
But, according to a recent interview with Russian outlet MatchTV, Michkov doesn’t really pay attention to any reports or rumors coming from over here in North America.
In North America they write that you can leave SKA and go to Philadelphia due to bad relations with Roman Rotenberg. Is it so?
“I don’t know where such rumors come from. Apparently, someone in America decided that everything could be seen and heard better from there, but this is not so. Roman and I have an excellent relationship! We are constantly in touch, talking, he gives a lot of practical and valuable advice — we have complete mutual understanding both with the club and with him personally, which I really appreciate.”
Now there are a lot of rumors circulating on the Internet about where you will continue your career. How do you react to them?
“I don’t pay attention. My job is to be 100 percent ready to play my best hockey in any situation. I try not to be distracted by reading the news, this only hinders me from fully preparing for the season.”
It is important to note that this transcription was then translated roughly through automated programs, so it might not be 100 percent correct. But, if we’re just getting the gist of what the Flyers’ top prospect is saying, is that he doesn’t really want to pay attention to that.
To dig deeper, Michkov first said he doesn’t know where the rumors of him going to Philadelphia specifically because of his relationship with Rotenberg, the head coach of SKA St. Petersburg, not just the rumors that he is going to the Flyers. And maybe that’s just us wanting to read what we want to read, but that felt like a distinction that had to be made.
If we really want to put our little detective spectacles on and follow some bread crumbs, we can go on a ride. So, the original rumor and report came out of an interview from MatchTV with SKA chairman Alexander Medvedev. He made it clear that he likes the Flyers organization and that there could be a decision sometime in the month of June as to whether or not he is going to Philadelphia this summer. Now, with June just right around the corner, SKA might be preparing for a world without Michkov.
On Friday, the same day the interview with Michkov was released, SKA St. Peterburg went nuts and signed a bunch of players to either contract extensions to keep them, or bringing in free agents. Mikhail Vorobyov and Marat Khairullin both signed two-year deals to stay, and two players from CSKA Moscow, Sergei Plotnikov and Mikhail Grigorenko signed four-year deals to be top-line players for SKA.
This might be just really trying to read the tea leaves, but securing the talents of four forwards the week before your young phenom in Michkov could leave for the NHL, is certainly interesting.
We are not saying anything is concrete, but just trying to follow some clues from thousands of miles away.
