The 21-year-old winger doesn\u2019t take it for granted. At every stop of his hockey career, his family had been by his side, from his earliest days in Perm, Russia, to his stints with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, SKA St. Petersburg, and HC Sochi.<\/p>\n
That changed in 2024, when he arrived in Philadelphia<\/a>, young, unsure of his surroundings, and alone. <\/p>\n The Flyers had selected Michkov<\/a> a year earlier with the seventh overall pick in the 2023 NHL draft, but it seemed like they\u2019d have to wait before the highly touted prospect joined their roster.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Some wanted to change Trevor Zegras. The Flyers let \u2018Z be Z.\u2019 Now, he\u2019s got his \u2018swagger back.\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Michkov, whose Flyers will open this year\u2019s Stanley Cup playoffs in Pittsburgh on Saturday, was in the midst of a five-year contract with SKA St. Petersburg, but managed to terminate it two years early in June 2024. A month later, he left for the U.S., unaccompanied by his family.<\/p>\n He couldn\u2019t speak or understand English, and struggled with the cultural differences. Everyday tasks that were easy in Russia suddenly became hard.<\/p>\n Slava Kuznetsov, the team\u2019s skating coach and translator, was on call 24 hours a day. A few times, Michkov would ring him from the gas station, asking how to refuel his car.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause he could not talk to [the attendants],\u201d Kuznetsov said.<\/p>\n There were countless examples like this, and for a then-19-year-old, whom many hoped would save <\/a>the dormant<\/a> franchise<\/a>, in one of the most intense sports cities in the world, it was a lot.<\/p>\n But since then, his outlook has improved. In August 2024, his mother, Maria, and his brother, Prohor, moved to South Jersey and rented a house a few doors down from Kuznetsov.<\/p>\n This year, the winger is starting to pick up more English, and can communicate with teammates and coaches without a translator. He doesn\u2019t need to rely on GPS to get around.<\/p>\n Life in America still feels foreign, but now, it is a little happier.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s good to feel at home,\u201d Michkov said, through a translator. \u201cThe atmosphere is home.\u201d<\/p>\n Dreaming of the NHL<\/p>\n Michkov was born and raised in Perm, a provincial city not far from the Ural Mountains in western Russia. During the Cold War, it became a hub for artillery production, mining, and oil refineries, but the city has been better known<\/a> in recent years for its contemporary art and world-class ballet.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t a hockey hotbed like Moscow or St. Petersburg, but by age 2 1\/2, Michkov was already on the ice. His father, Andrei, played in local leagues around the city, and was eager to see his son supersede him.<\/p>\n \u201cHe liked to score,\u201d Matvei recalled. \u201cHe was not the fastest, but he could snipe. He knew what he wanted to see out of me. He would say, \u2019Don\u2019t look at me. Be your best.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n At first, the winger dreamt of being a goalie, imitating the likes of former Flyer Sergei Bobrovsky<\/a>. He\u2019d sit on his knees, with a glove in his right hand and a rubber ball in his left, throwing it against a wall at home as if he was stopping a puck.<\/p>\n Andrei, a strict disciplinarian, worried about his son breaking a piece of furniture. <\/p>\n So, Matvei decided to get creative.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d go to the bathroom and practice there,\u201d he said with a laugh. \u201cNobody could hear.\u201d<\/p>\n Coaches felt Michkov was undersized for a goalie, and moved him to forward, where he rapidly found success. The family moved to Yaroslavl, 16 hours from Perm, so he could play with the well-known youth program at Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Flyers rookie Matvei Michkov is the latest Philly sports savior. Can he match the hype?<\/a><\/p>\n In the 2019-20 season, he scored 70 goals and compiled 109 points in only 26 games for Yaroslavl\u2019s under-16 team. He added 15 goals and 28 points in 10 games for the U16 Russian national team that year.<\/p>\n Andrei served as a round-the-clock hockey coach, making sure his son stayed focused on his ultimate goal of playing in the NHL. This constant supervision didn\u2019t allow for much whimsy, and it occasionally frustrated the teenager.<\/p>\n Sometimes after school, Matvei would go to the grocery store with his friends to buy chips and soda. They\u2019d eat and drink in the yard at their apartment complex, until Andrei showed up.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d see my father and I\u2019d have to say goodbye and go to practice,\u201d Matvei said. \u201cI was not allowed to eat junk food. He was always asking me to eat good.\u201d <\/p>\n He added: \u201cSometimes I was a little bit angry about how they always had their eye on me. But without the guidance of my father, I would not be what I am right now.\u201d<\/p>\n With every passing year, Michkov\u2019s star continued to brighten. In 2021-22, he made his Kontinental Hockey League debut at 16 with SKA St. Petersburg, one of the most respected teams in Russia\u2019s top league.<\/p>\n In 2022-23, he was loaned to Sochi, where he played for two seasons, tallying 28 goals and 61 points in 74 games. By age 18, Michkov had already established himself as a smart player with elite puck-handling skills, who had broken records at every level.<\/p>\n Still, he pined to reach the NHL, and it seemed like he was close to making that jump.<\/p>\n Months before the 2023 draft, the family was upended by a crisis. On April 2, Andrei was declared missing. On April 4, Russian media outlets reported<\/a> that he was found dead, just outside of Sochi.<\/p>\n Andrei was 51. In a statement, the Russian Hockey Federation said he \u201csadly passed away in unexplained circumstances.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Eighty-five days later, Matvei was in Nashville to embark on the next stage of his career. <\/p>\n He was selected by the Flyers in the first round, and in a media availability<\/a> afterwards, paid tribute to his late father.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom a young age, my dad put a lot of work into my game,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cHe taught me a lot of ways of disguising my shot. A lot of credit with my goal-scoring goes to [him].\u201d<\/p>\n Life in America <\/p>\n After securing his early release from SKA St. Petersburg, Michkov departed Russia on July 22, 2024. Flyers general manager Danny Bri\u00e8re<\/a> and team president Keith Jones<\/a> met the prospect at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, and drove him to Voorhees.<\/p>\n Training camp was about two months away, but the Flyers felt it was important to give Michkov extra time to acclimate to a new country, and a new league.<\/p>\n The KHL played on a shorter schedule, in rinks that could be a variety of dimensions, and with a less physical, more calculated style of play. But it wasn\u2019t just that.<\/p>\n Michkov\u2019s language barrier made almost everything challenging. The cultural adjustments did, too.<\/p>\n One disparity he noticed almost immediately was that more people smiled at him in America than in Russia. Initially, he assumed these strangers had nefarious intentions.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Russia, people are more serious,\u201d he said. \u201cIf they have something to say, they say it to your face. Here, it could be that they\u2019re smiling to your face and say differently behind your back.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the beginning, I was not really comfortable, because everybody would smile. Even in the stores, the gas station. I was not used to it.\u201d<\/p>\n The time difference made it difficult to stay in touch with family and friends at home. Kuznetsov and his wife, Yulia, and son, Max, became Michkov\u2019s stateside support system.<\/p>\n He lived with them for his first month in America. Yulia would make home-cooked Russian meals every night. They\u2019d follow dinner with a Russian sitcom \u2014 Zhuki \u2014 about the contrast between country and city folk.<\/p>\n \u201cWe watched them all,\u201d Kuznetsov said.<\/p>\n The skating coach gave the prospect guided tours of the local grocery store, gas station, and other routine destinations. This grew to include some surprising stops.<\/p>\n One day, Michkov asked Kuznetsov where he bought his activewear.<\/p>\n \u201cLululemon,\u201d the coach responded.<\/p>\n He could tell Michkov was hoping for a trip. Kuznetsov relented.<\/p>\n \u201cOkayyy,\u201d he said. \u201cLet\u2019s go.\u201d <\/p>\n When they walked in, the winger\u2019s eyes lit up.<\/p>\n \u201cLululemon,\u201d the coach said with a laugh. \u201cHis favorite place.\u201d<\/p>\n Michkov felt much more at ease once Maria and Prohor arrived in August 2024. They briefly lived out of a hotel, and then moved to South Jersey.<\/p>\n Yulia and Slava would translate for Maria on occasion. They\u2019d also help Prohor navigate the newfound experience of attending an American high school.<\/p>\n His previous school in Russia hadn\u2019t used a bus to pick up students. So, Kuznetsov explained how it worked: Where the stop was, what time to be there, and of course, the importance of not being late.<\/p>\n \u201cLittle things that we\u2019re used to here, the [athletes and families] that come in, it\u2019s a nightmare for them,\u201d Kuznetsov said. \u201cYou miss the bus. How do you get to school?\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Steak, pasta, and Sprite\u2019 <\/p>\n On the ice, Michkov had a successful first year in 2024-25. He fell just shy of being a finalist for the Calder Trophy, given to the NHL\u2019s rookie of the year, after leading rookies in goals (26) and tying for second in points (63).<\/p>\n Despite his accolades, he still struggled to communicate with teammates and coaches. Left winger Noah Cates<\/a> noticed that they sometimes spoke too fast, or used slang, leaving the teenager with an \u201coverwhelmed\u201d look on his face.<\/p>\n Kuznetsov couldn\u2019t be everywhere at once. So, Michkov started to fend for himself. This was especially true when the team was on the road.<\/p>\n For almost the entirety of his rookie season, he\u2019d pick up the hotel phone and order the only meal he knew how to recite in English: \u201cSteak, pasta, and Sprite.\u201d<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t until this season that the winger started feeling more comfortable conversing with his teammates (and choosing other options on the room service menu).<\/p>\n Cates made a concerted effort to slow down when they were going over shifts on the whiteboard or the iPad. Kuznetsov called it \u201chockey language.\u201d<\/p>\n The Minnesota native spoke no Russian. Michkov knew only minimal English.<\/p>\n But as they scribbled on the board, and paused and pointed at the video, both players found that they were able to understand each other.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously he\u2019s such a smart offensive player, and thinks about the game a little bit differently,\u201d Cates said. \u201cIt\u2019s very unique but it\u2019s special. And like I said, you\u2019ve just got to find him, and know where he\u2019s going.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just going to the board, slowing it down, communicating different things that we\u2019re seeing, or want to accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n Michkov says his Flyers teammates have become his de facto English teachers this year, placing a particular emphasis on the expletives. <\/p>\n In turn, Michkov has shared some of his native expressions with his comrades.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like if I know any Russian, it\u2019s curse words,\u201d Cates said. \u201cGoes both ways.\u201d<\/p>\n After a slow start, the winger has been on a tear since February\u2019s Olympic break. Michkov\u2019s 22 points \u2014 seven goals, 15 assists \u2014 in 26 games led the Flyers after the restart, while he racked up 18 points and a plus-11 rating over his past 16 contests to finish the regular season. <\/p>\n He\u2019s also developed more of a rapport with his teammates.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to be honest with you guys,\u201d head coach Rick Tocchet<\/a> told reporters on Thursday. \u201cEarly this season [he was] not a \u2018loner,\u2019 but he was kind of alone a lot. <\/p>\n \u201cNow, he\u2019s around the young guys, I think it\u2019s a huge development for Mich. Even with the language barrier \u2026 I think he\u2019s actually stepped up his English. But he\u2019s more involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
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