From 7th Overall to NHL All-Rookie Team Member

Take a trip down memory lane to re-visit how Flyers landed Matvei Michkov in the 2023 NHL Draft

“With the first overall selection in the 2023 NHL Draft, the Chicago Blackhawks are very proud to select, from the Regina Pats in the Western Hockey League, Connor Bedard.”

Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson started off the evening of Wednesday, June 28, 2023 with the only certainty for that year’s draft at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. Connor Bedard had been targeted as a generational player for more than three years since he was granted exceptional status to enter the Western Hockey League a year early in March of 2020, just weeks after the COVID-19 shutdown upended the NHL world.

There were some loose Flyers connections. Bedard was nabbed by the Regina Pats, whose general manager, John Paddock, had Flyers ties as a player, assistant coach, and front office executive while also serving as coach of the Phantoms during their last season in Philadelphia. Paddock eventually became the head coach of Regina as well (for a second time), and ran the Pats bench during the last two seasons of Bedard’s time there. He announced his retirement shortly after the phenom was drafted by the Blackhawks.

The Flyers also had a hand in Chicago having the pick in the first place – in the final game of the 2022-23 season, the Flyers defeated the Blackhawks in a shootout at the United Center. That result placed Chicago 30th overall in the NHL that season; had the Blackhawks won the shootout, they would have placed 29th. A few weeks later, the lottery balls that popped up directed the first overall pick to the 30th place team, and if that shootout had gone Chicago’s way, Bedard would have been a member of the San Jose Sharks.

All of this was in the past, of course, as Bedard descended out of the Bridgestone Arena stands to the draft floor. Earlier that week in Nashville, Davidson had been mistaken for a random fan on the street during an interview by an online outlet. Even if they had been right, he still would have gotten that first pick correct. It was pick #2, held by Anaheim, that was where the draft really started. Adam Fantilli and Will Smith, both US-based players, were highly scouted and highly touted. But there were a whole bunch of highly-skilled European-based players whose fortunes were less well-known.

One of them was Matvei Michkov, who had been playing during the pandemic in relative obscurity in Russia. A few select pundits had him rated higher than Bedard, while some others bullish on him ranked him second in the draft; others were cooler on him. Meghan Chayka of the analytics firm Stathletes was serving as an analyst on the ESPN broadcast of the draft, with a “best available” ticker running across the screen based on her projections. From the moment Bedard was picked, her #1 best available was Adam Fantilli; #2 was Matvei Michkov.

But there were questions. Michkov had signed a three-year contract with SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL that it was widely expected he would have to honor. When would he come over? Would he come over at all? These were questions that had people wondering all the more about picks 2-10 in this draft.

The Flyers held the seventh overall pick. Daniel Briere, in his first draft as the general manager of the Flyers, watched and waited.

“With our first selection, we are proud to select from Orebro, SHL, Leo Carlsson.”

Anaheim general manager Pat Verbeek skated in a different direction than a lot of people thought he would, given that Fantilli had just won the Hobey Baker Award at Michigan after posting 65 points in 36 games while leading the Wolverines to the Frozen Four. But Verbeek said afterwards that their camp was unanimous in preferring Carlsson, a 6-3 center who had been playing in Sweden’s top league as a 17-year-old.

There were four picks left until the Flyers were on the clock.

“The Columbus Blue Jackets are proud to select, from the University of Michigan, Adam Fantilli.”

If Columbus GM Jarmo Kekalainen had any inkling about what Anaheim was going to do, he didn’t let on. He told the media after the draft that he thought picks 2, 3 and 4 could have gone in any order. The Blue Jackets had been heavily tied to Will Smith, likely based on the assumption that Fantilli wouldn’t be there. But once Fantilli was, the Blue Jackets grabbed him, despite the disdain from Ohio’s capital city towards That State Up North.

Three picks left until Philadelphia. Chayka’s projection ticker now listed Michkov as the best player available.

“With the fourth selection overall, the San Jose Sharks are proud to select Will Smith.”

The Sharks introduced franchise legend Patrick Marleau to make the pick, which at that point in the draft was more expected after the way the first three fell. It marked four consecutive centers chosen at the top of the draft. GM Mike Greir had seen Smith play longer than most; he was a former teammate of Grier’s son Jayden and attended the same prep school that Grier had attended in Massachusetts. But as it appeared the teams at the top of the draft were more interested in the players with a clearer future, Smith was the last of the top four available when San Jose’s pick came up.

Briere turned to assistant general manager Alyn McCauley. “So far, we have our list right on.”

But now it was time for things to get interesting. Two more picks until the Flyers were up, and the Montreal Canadiens were the first team whose intentions were thought to be up in the air. There was a lot of chatter that Montreal was going to trade down to a team looking to move up in the draft. Whether one of those teams was the Flyers or not, we may never know. Briere said afterwards that he’d looked at “different opportunities to try to move up” but it ended up being too expensive to do so.

“Le Canadiens de Montreal are proud to select David Reinbacher.”

The Montreal Canadiens brought in franchise legend Carey Price to make the pick. Whether or not his team was going to make the pick was up for debate. With the four centermen off the board, most pundits turned to the top two defensemen in the draft – Reinbacher and Dmitry Simashev. That was, of course, assuming that neither Montreal or Arizona wanted to take the perceived risk that went along with Michkov.

So with Reinbacher headed to Montreal, there was only one pick remaining before Philadelphia's selection. In addition to Michkov, the Flyers were said to have been high on Ryan Leonard from the USNDTP. It was now guaranteed that one of the two players would be available at #7.

The Arizona Coyotes are proud to select, from Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, Dmitry Simashev.”

With that from Arizona’s amateur scouting director Ryan Jankowski, the door for the Flyers was officially open. The club had both the sixth and 12th picks, and it turned out that as later described on Arizona’s “Inside Access” behind-the-scenes Youtube series, the Coyotes were high on both Simashev and his Yaroslavl teammate Daniil But. They’d bandied about the idea of getting both players, and that’s what they ended up doing.

Of course, we all know what happened next. Briere stepped to the mic and selected Matvei Michkov, which sent the ESPN panel into a frenzy.

“Higher (scoring) clip than Ovechkin in his draft year,” Chayka said. “For the seventh pick… this is incredible for Philadelphia.”

“This is a game-breaker,” said Brian Boucher. “This is a guy that’s going to be electrifying.”

And it was all done without needing to move up.

“To have a talent of his caliber, we didn’t think he would be available at seven,” Briere said. “The value of picks on the day of a draft for some reason seem to go up very very high, so we weren’t able to get near any of the other picks in front of us. So we just waited and it kind of fell into our lap.”

It’s now two years later, and Michkov is already here with a year in the NHL now under his belt.

The cupboard is full right now for the team. With three picks in the first round, including the sixth overall selection, the Flyers are poised to add another big piece next month. Talent can be found at various points in the draft. We’ll see how the chips fall on June 27th.