Flyers top prospect Matvei Michkov makes big decision on his future

According to Hockey News Hub on X, who has been covering this story for months now, Matvei Michkov is coming over to North America to join the Philadelphia Flyers for the 2024-25 season and will terminate his contract with SKA St. Petersburg.

Daily Faceoff's Frank Seravalli confirmed the news, saying that while everything is stull fluid at this time, Matvei Michkov will be heading to the Philadelphia Flyers to begin his career in the National Hockey League next season.

Michkov, 19, was one of the top prospects heading into the 2023 NHL Entry Draft last summer and many viewed him as the second-best player in that class behind North Vancouver's Connor Bedard. But Michkov's contract situation made things a bit tricky.

The Perm, Russia native was under contract with SKA St. Petersburg in the KHL until after the 2025-26 and that was one of the factors that deterred teams from selecting him last year. Michkov ultimately fell to the Philadelphia Flyers at seventh overall and flash forward 12 months, he's able to get out of his contract two years earlier than expected.

This news likely isn't sitting well with teams that selected second through sixth overall in last year's draft, especially for the Montreal Canadiens, who are still looking for an elite goal scorer to add to their lineup. The Canadiens selected Austrian defenceman David Reinbacher fifth overall last season and he's expected to be a big part of their defensive group for many years to come alongside Kaiden Guhle, Lane Hutson and Logan Mailloux.

In 48 KHL games this season, one with SKA and 47 with HC Sochi, Michkov put up 41 points (19 goals, 22 assists), 45 penalty minutes and was a minus-six.

We'll have to wait and see how things develop on this front in the coming days, but this is big news for the Philadelphia Flyers and their fan base and certainly helps accelerate their retool.