Both Short and Long Term Options that Could Better Help Michkov Down the Middle

Photo Credit: St. Louis Blues Press/ HC Dynamo Moscow

As we all heard by now, the reports leading up to the draft were that the Philadelphia Flyers and their General Manager Danny Briere wanted to move up to within the top five to be able to select their star prospect Matvei Michkov’s friend and now former teammate Ivan Demidov.

But the Flyers evidently balked at the asking price it would have taken to do so. Ivan (who was then later graciously selected by the Montreal Canadiens 5th overall) possesses the kind of elite stick-handling/puck-distributing skill set that would have paired perfectly with Michkov’s unreal finishing ability. He played in 30 regular season MHL games this year in Russia, where he scored 23 goals and 37 assists for 60 points while maintaining a +47 average on the season. And, if that wasn’t enough, he, like only the greats know how to do come playoff time, was able to take it to another level and tally 28 points in 17 playoff games while finishing with a +19 average for the postseason.

Now, I get it. Columbus reportedly wanted Philadelphia to give up multiple first-round picks that they possessed from this past draft, a player from the Flyers’ active roster, and potentially more. Still, you can’t get something for nothing.

I mean, to get one of, if not the greatest player to have ever worn a Flyers jersey “Eric Lindros” the team had to give up then-draft prospect Peter Forsberg, roster players Mike Ricci, Ron Hextall, Steve Duchesne, Kerry Huffman, future considerations —which eventually became Chris Simon — two first-round draft picks, and $15 million.

So, don’t tell me that you would be mad if the team managed to pull the trigger on a similar deal for the chance to land a player that could potentially give the Flyers their best duo since Lindros and LeClair last stepped on the ice together way back in the year 2000.

The Flyers had the draft capital to make it happen but were reluctant to pull the trigger when it came right down to it. So, instead, they decided to reach for a guy in Jett Luchanko (who wasn’t projected to go until much later in the 1st round). Not to mention them deciding to then accept a deferred payment from the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for their second first-round selection in this year’s draft, which they received from trading Claude Giroux to Florida multiple seasons ago now in the terms for Edmonton’s own 2025 1st round pick.

Now, I don’t know about you, but it seems like management was just mad that they couldn’t get who they wanted for what they were willing to pay, so they just went through the motions the rest of the weekend and decided to stockpile their chances for the 2025 Draft.

But I’m not here to just complain. I’m here to present a way that the Flyers could gain a shot at redemption in both the short and long term.

SHORT TERM (Nikita Alexandrov)

In the short term the Flyers are looking for help down the center of the ice. For years now, Philadelphia has put a strong emphasis on their forwards being defensively responsible in an effort to hide just how bad their defensive core has been during that time. But in order to make that game plan a reality, they have managed to draft, sign, and trade for practically the same type of player down the middle. Take, for instance, the men who lineup in the dots currently for this franchise. Sean Couturier, Morgan Frost, Scott Laughton, and Ryan Poehling. They are all cookie-cutter molds of the same type of player whose primary focus is winning faceoffs in order to gain puck possession and then hanging back in order to limit their opponent’s chances of scoring goals.

While this ideology sounds nice in theory, and did manage to aid their defense a bit last season. It resulted in their offense suffering exponentially, with Philadelphia scoring just 231 goals last season, which ranked them 20th in the league.

Now, I don’t care how many Selke Trophies Coots wins before he hangs up his skates for the last time. If the team is now going to be forced to pay him $7.75 million annually until the year 2030, then I’m going to need him to light the lamp more than the 11 times he did last year. And, for that matter, the same goes for the teams’ other centers that collectively averaged just 12 goals apiece last season.

So, in my opinion, in order to give Michkov the best opportunity to succeed this upcoming season, they need to switch it up a bit and get Matvei a potential offensive threat down the middle to play with. To do that, I would suggest the Flyers try to pull off a sign-and-trade deal for the speedy St. Louis Blues restricted free agent, 23-year-old Russian dot dweller Nikita Alexandrov. Nikita, who is a former 30-goal scorer during his time in the QMJHL, was originally drafted back in 2019 in the 2nd round by the Blues but, however promising, Nikita found himself last season often being labeled a healthy scratch since the Blues were pretty loaded down the middle and were afraid of trying to send him back down to the AHL (where he was averaging a point per game) for fear he would be quickly snagged off the waiver wire.

However, despite the high probability that Alexandrov will be dealt a similar fate this upcoming season, with no significant changes occurring in St. Louis’ lineup this off-season. The Blues still decided to extend a qualifying offer to him this off-season so they would not lose Alexandrov for nothing.

Although I can see the logistics in that, they still seem reluctant to offer him the type of term and salary he believes he is worth. This leads me to believe that Nikita, who carried a cap hit of just $816K last season, could benefit from a change of venue, much like Owen Tippett did when he joined the Orange and Black from the likes of the Florida Panthers.

Therefore, I think the Flyers should hurry up and take advantage of the Blues’ lack of space for Alexandrov on their NHL roster and offer a trade for his rights for nothing more than a couple of already-drafted prospects who are no longer progressing in the Flyers system. St. Louis is likely to take whatever they can get for him at this point, considering they just lost one of their other young Russian center prospects, Mikhail Abramov, to the KHL because he, too, was in the same situation and did not want to spend another season in the minors without even getting a fair shot at the NHL level to prove himself.

I believe taking a shot at acquiring Nikita Alexandrov from the Blues would be a low-risk, high-reward type move. If it works out, it would not only give Matvei Michkov a faster, more offensive threat to play with than any other Center on this team but also a fellow Russian that he could play with to help him better understand what is expected of him in practice and in games until he has the chance to better learn how to speak the language.

Long Term Option (Ivan Ryabkin)

Suppose that doesn’t work out. It was only meant to be a stopgap anyway. The real solution would be to utilize any of the three first’s or three second-round picks that the Flyers have acquired for next year’s draft and package them up to draft a fellow Russian player who, once paired with Michkov, the duo could prove to develop into one of the best in the league. And that player would be none other than the next Russian phenom 2025 Draft-eligible center Ivan Ryabkin.

Ivan, who just turned 17 years old in April, played the majority of the year in the MHL this past season, where he managed to score 24 goals and 34 assists for 58 points in 44 games played, which may not be the two points per game average that Demidov managed in that league this year. Still, Ryabkin’s draft year is this upcoming season. He has already proved himself in the MHL, so chances are you will see him receiving some playing time in the KHL next season. Especially since he plays for a lesser team in Dynamo and not the stacked Red Army Team that Demidov was only able to crack the KHL lineup with for four times this past season.

Ryabkin plays a similar game to Demidov in that he is able to use his soft hands and strong hockey sense to maneuver himself to a possession where he can best set up his teammates for a goal. But unlike Demidov, Ryabkin has been known to play a bit more aggressively in the sense that he’ll follow that pass up by crashing the net for the chance to put back a nice juicy rebound. And this is just my opinion, but didn’t the team always seem to make the playoffs when they had one of those types of guys on the roster? You know, players like John LeClair, Mike Knuble, Wayne Simmonds, and Scott Hartnell, to name a few.

So, if I’m Danny Briere, I’m not taking no for an answer next summer when calling teams about the possibility of moving up to select Ryabkin. They have the draft capital to make any move they want a reality. So, why not go get Michkov, someone who deserves to play with him? Every great player in this league who was/is successful is successful because he has a significant number two guy. Lemieux had Jagr, Crosby has Malkin, McDavid has Draisaitl, and the list could go on and on, but you get the point. One man cannot do it all on his own. Hell, even “The Great One” had Jari Kurri, who scored 71 goals in 1985, to help Wayne and the Oilers get past Ron Hextall and the rest of the Flyers.

So, if the Flyers really think Michkov is going to be the best player to wear an Orange and Black jersey since “The Big E” (Eric Lindros), then please don’t hesitate next time to go get him someone he can play with.