Flyers' Michkov leads latest infusion of Russian talent into NHL

Fears over getting Matvei Michkov out of Russia, combined with a lack of reliable scouting, led the skilled winger to slip in the 2023 NHL draft. The rebuilding Philadelphia Flyers took him with the seventh pick, willing to be patient and wait for Michkov to play out the final three seasons of his KHL contract.

Two years ahead of schedule, the Flyers got Michkov to North America, and he could make his debut in the top hockey league in the world on Friday. He could be the best prospect to come out of Russia since Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin in 2005.

The 19-year-old is just part of the league's latest infusion of Russian talent, which is flowing despite the war in Ukraine and the longstanding lack of an international transfer agreement between the NHL and KHL.

“It’s good that guys not be afraid to try here, a year of hockey, without any parents, your friends,” Winnipeg Jets prospect Nikita Chibrikov, 21, said at the NHLPA rookie showcase last month. “It’s really hard. You come to another country, for us, it feels like another world. Some guys don’t know the language. It feels like you try to live another life.”

Michkov was the second of 21 players selected out of a Russian league in ‘23, and NHL teams took 24 in the most recent draft last summer. Washington’s Ivan Miroshnichenko was the first of 20 taken in '22, the first draft since Russia invaded Ukraine.

The International Ice Hockey Federation has since banned Russia and close ally Belarus from participating in its tournaments, including the world juniors for players under 20 and the under-18 world championship that serve as key scouting opportunities. The NHL has also cut business ties with Russia since the war began, and teams because of travel bans and safety and security concerns have fewer scouts looking at the KHL and the other leagues there.

Steven Warshaw, a marketing executive who worked in Moscow in the 1990s for the Pittsburgh Penguins when they invested in a hockey club there in the aftermath of the Soviet Union's collapse, estimates that there's 90% less scouting in Russia than before the war. That has clouded player evaluation, and he also said extra money is being spent to keep the best homegrown players in Russia.

“They’re keeping a lot of players that would normally come here,” said Warshaw said. “No one wants to end up in Allentown making (less than league minimum) money. They’d rather be in St. Petersburg getting hundreds of thousands of dollars and being stars, speaking their own language, eating their own food, feeling comfortable.”

That is why Chibrikov, a second-rounder in 2021 who made his NHL debut last season, is glad to see his fellow countrymen taking the same chance he did. He spent much of last season in the American Hockey League with the Manitoba Moose, who are also based in Winnipeg.

“If you want to come here and try hockey skills, what you learned in Russia, here is the strongest league in the world,” he said. “You need to adapt here. So many guys are quicker, and guys need more time.”

While Michkov is going straight to the NHL, Miroshnichenko split time last season between the Capitals and AHL Calder Cup champion Hershey Bears and may again over the coming months. Another Philadelphia prospect, Belarusian goaltender Alexei Kolosov, could start in the minors in Allentown, Pennsylvania, with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, but he's the first call-up in case of injury and is thought of highly for the future of the franchise.

The Flyers got Michkov out of Russia earlier than anticipated after waiting nearly two full extra years for goalie Ivan Fedotov, who signed an NHL contract in May 2022. Before getting to North America, Fedotov was taken by authorities to a military base in the Arctic Circle for a year of military service.

Fedotov played last season for CSKA Moscow — one of the two richly financed teams in the KHL along with SKA Saint Petersburg — before abruptly having his contract terminated last spring. With the path cleared, he joined the Flyers down the stretch and signed an extension.

“When people ask, ‘How did these guys get out,' it’s money,” Warshaw said. "It’s just plain and simple."

Michkov through Chibrikov interpreting said he was “very thankful to the GM and the organization" and “really excited to wear this uniform.” Having Fedotov and Egor Zamula around should help his adjustment to Philadelphia, which he called in English, “a beautiful city.”

Zamula was almost crying during his first few months in North America in 2017 playing junior hockey in western Canada and as the only Russian Flyers player last season wanted to talk to his TV or a chair when he went home after games. He hopes to ease Michkov's adjustment, just as Ovechkin has for Miroshnichenko and countless others have over the years.

“Now it’s my turn, because I understand how hard is that, and I try to do my best to help him get comfortable here,” Zamula said. “It’s different for him, for sure, but he will be fine.”

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AP Sports Writer Dan Gelston in Voorhees, New Jersey, contributed.

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AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL