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Matvei Michkov Finished his Sophomore Season with 51 Points
Published:
Matvei Michkov bagged a goal and two assists in the Flyers’ regular season finale on Tuesday night, a 4-2 home win against the Montreal Canadiens:
It’ll go down in the history books as a 98 point season for the Flyers, their highest total since 2017-2018, when they went into the playoffs with 42 wins.
For Michkov, it’s a 20 goal, 31 assist season amounting to 51 points. That’s a dip from the 63-point rookie season, but there are a few caveats to consider:
- Michkov played fewer minutes this season, just 1,202.04 of total ice time. That’s down from the 1,334.45 he played his first season. He averaged 14:50 TOI across 81 games this season and 16:41 TOI over 80 games last year.
- His post-Olympic break production was very good. Between February 25th and April 14th, he scored 7 goals and 15 assists, which amounts to 43.1% of his total points. He scored 35% of his goals and logged 48% of his assists after the rest period.
- He spent a portion of the season playing on the left wing, despite John Tortorella and previous coaches using him on the right.
- Michkov was used on the power play less frequently – 174 minutes this year and 224 last year, according to the Sportradar data.
All told, when you look back at the “came into camp out of shape” storyline, the summer ankle injury, and the initial rockiness with Rick Tocchet, you have to feel pretty good about how Michkov’s regular season ended. The Olympic break was always going to be a key moment in his sophomore season, and while he still made some mistakes in February, March, and April, his point production picked up and he really looked much more like the player we saw in year one. The break served him well, and he looks to be in better shape and playing a more consistent and responsible game.
Now he’s got an opportunity to finish even stronger with a good series against the Penguins. It’ll be big time hockey for a young kid, and a great test against some savvy old vets in Crosby and Malkin and Letang and all those geriatric dudes in Pittsburgh.
Most importantly, it looks like we’re over the fitness hump and the year 2 backslide and hopefully the toughest part of Michkov’s career is in the past.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com