Flyers player Matvey Michkov named NHL Rookie of the Month

Everyone is watching leaflets games knows how good Matvey Michkov is. Now the NHL has taken notice.

On Friday, Michkov was named NHL Rookie of the Month for October. He skated in 11 games, scored four goals and had five assists, and had nine points in the first eight games of the season. He is the first aviator to receive this award since James van Riemsdyk in November 2009.

“Some pieces work well, some don’t,” Michkov said through Slava Kuznetsov, the team’s consultant, on Friday. “Everything is a work in progress.”

The current work looks pretty good so far. He finished first in October among rookies in goals (four), power-play goals (three) and power-play points (six) and tied for first with Logan Stankoven of the Dallas Stars with nine points.

At just 19 years old, Michkov impressed fans with his hockey vision and determination. The Russian phenomenon made his NHL debut on October 11 against the Vancouver Canucks, playing almost 19 minutes. The next night in Calgary, he put Travis Konecny on the power play for his first NHL point.

Two days later, against Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers, he scored his first NHL goal on the power play when he put the puck into the net. There were a few delays, first to determine whether the ball was in and then the Oilers challenged goaltender interference, but once it was official, he had to celebrate the big moment.

“I think everyone in this room is probably more excited than he is, I hope,” Garnett Hathaway, who shocked Mickov when the goal was scored, said after the game. “You can see the fight he has, how he competes. And I think a goal like that kind of epitomizes what he brings to the game.”

Michkov added another marker on the power play, and his first four NHL points came with the man advantage. He became the first player to score his first two goals in the same game since Vinny Prospal on March 8, 1997, and the youngest player to score multiple goals since Nolan Patrick in April 2018.

In two games against Russian star Alex Ovechkin, he scored one goal and added two assists in one of his three multi-point games.

“He came out of the blocks flying,” assistant coach Brad Shaw said Friday. “You can see he likes to have the puck on his stick. It’s an unforgiving league, a really tough league, and trying to learn the language, trying to learn how to play on such a big ice surface, I think we all expect there will be a few bumps in the road, but it will come out of the gate. so quickly and show what he can do.”

There were some bumps and on Thursday night 2-1 win over St. Louis BluesMichkov served several shifts. Coach John Tortorella said after the game that he wouldn’t go into detail about the three-shift bench at five-on-five – he did include the power play between them – but said it was “repetitive.”

“He likes to play on the run, and in this league there are a lot of elements of the game where stopping and starting is a much more effective way to defend, contain or even provide offensive support,” Shaw said. “He has a tendency to stay on the move, and sometimes that knocks you out of that good ice you started on.

“He’s learning. … He’s a goal-oriented guy. You see how competitive he is and there is no doubt that he will figure out his problems and become a better hockey player.”

One thing that has become apparent is his connection to Travis Konecny. The two energetic strikers – yes, Michkov also plays with an advantage – were either close or connected several times.

When they’re on the ice together, the Flyers have scored eight goals on 162 shot attempts, according to Natural Stat Trick; The opponent scored eight goals on 87 shot attempts. When Michkov is without Konec (42.13%) or Konec is without Michkov (39.58%), the shot attempts are for against against in favor of the opponent. But this work is still ongoing.

“Travis is a great player,” Michkov said. “Some things work well, some don’t. It probably took a little more time to bond and get some really good chemistry.”

Now Michkov is just trying to enjoy the game and experience as an NHL player. Selected seventh overall by the Flyers in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft, he arrived in the United States two years earlier than expected after being released from his contract with SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL. Michkov signed his rookie contract with the Flyers on July 1. and began his career as advertised.

And while the NHL Rookie of the Month award is a stepping stone to greater hardware, Michkov knows he couldn’t have done it without his teammates.

“I want to thank my teammates because without them this wouldn’t have happened,” he said.