The Philadelphia Flyers were absolutely on draft night when their turn to pick rolled around and Matvei Michkov was still on the draft board. The top prospect was one of the most talented players in the entire draft, but commitments to playing in the KHL scared many teams off. The Flyers didn't even hesitate pulling the trigger to draft the prospect.
All the Flyers could do now was wait and hope that their top prospect would eventually make the trip to North America. Last season Michkov continued his KHL career and up until today his rights are still owned by SKA making his transition to the NHL incredibly difficult.
Appearing on a recent podcast Daniel Briere made the following daunting comment:
For Flyers fans, this is the worst case scenario, especially after seeing top prospect Cutter Gauthier force a trade last season. With such high-end talent in their system, the Flyers certainly need to start transitioning players to the NHL, but with players like Michkov this becomes incredibly difficult.
It is extremely odd to see a general manager be this candid and open with the status of a prospect, but there is constant scrutiny of this management group. If Philadelphia is unable to get him to North America, it will be incredibly interesting to see and a terrible use of a top six draft pick.
POLL | ||
Does Martvei Michkov ever come to North America? | ||
Yes he will | 71 | 54.2 % |
I'm skeptical | 39 | 29.8 % |
No he won't | 21 | 16 % |
List of polls |