Star prospect Matvei Michkov has officially met up with the Philadelphia Flyers after landing at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York, on Tuesday morning.
The Flyers made an official announcement, accompanied by photos and later a video, to their social media channels shortly after the stroke of 10 a.m. Based on his luggage tags, Michkov took a connecting flight from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to JFK Airport.
Michkov was all smiles in the photos and videos documenting his arrival in North America as the Flyers’ caravan of Keith Jones, Danny Briere, and others arrived in New York to scoop him up. However, Michkov’s nonstop Emirates flight from Dubai to JFK was well over 13 hours, so it’s likely the 19-year-old is just happy to no longer be on an airplane.
Briere, the Flyers’ general manager, can be seen in the first photo above assisting his future franchise player in moving across the airport, carrying Michkov’s bundle of sticks as the trio looks up to the camera for the snapshot.
Michkov may or may not have arrived sporting the Philadelphia Phillies baseball cap, but either way, the Phillies seem to be thrilled about that.
One Flyers fan–Matt H., or @msh603 on X/Twitter–managed to track Michkov down to JFK Airport and appears to have secured the first item signed by Michkov as an official member of the Flyers.
Major props to Michkov for being willing to sign a jersey after such a long flight with many more busy days and weeks ahead of him. Also, we have to credit Matt for his attention to detail and seemingly always being in the right place at the right time.
The Flyers’ social media team managed to capture some of the moment on video; see for yourselves below.
With two months to go until the start of training camp, it’s likely Michkov spends the next several weeks getting his living arrangements in order and acclimating to the Philadelphia and Voorhees areas. At some point, there will very likely be an introductory press conference held, so we’ll have coverage of that as well.
It’s also worth noting that the NHL media site does not have Michkov listed on the Flyers’ active roster, and he’s still without an official headshot, so look for those two items to get checked off the list soon, too.
Some sites, such as PuckPedia, already include him on the active NHL roster, but it was always a matter of when and not if.
In the meantime, enjoy Michkov Mania. It’s just getting started.
