Matvei Michkov’s improved skating has fueled his torrid start: ‘I want to play, and I want to support [the] team more’
Michkov says his offseason skating work with Slava Kuznetsov has paid dividends. He's tied for 12th in the league in goals and is tracking for the first 40-goal season by a Flyer in almost 20 years.
BUFFALO, N.Y. — After a dreadful 0-6-3 start to the 2026-27 season, the Flyers have won two straight, including a 3-2 win on Monday against a perennial Stanley Cup contender in the Colorado Avalanche.
Matvei Michkov was a driver in both victories, notching the game-winner against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday and scoring twice vs. Colorado.
After his goal total dropped from 26 as a rookie to 20 last season, the Russian winger has six goals in 11 games ― it took him 22 games to reach that mark last year ― tying him for 12th in the NHL, alongside prolific goal scorers like Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, and Cole Caufield. He has scored 35% of the Flyers’ 17 goals, which are tied for the fewest in the NHL with the Calgary Flames and Los Angeles Kings, and is on pace for 46 goals. A reminder: No Flyer has scored 40 goals since Jeff Carter accomplished the feat during the 2008-09 season.
It feels like there has been a shift in Michkov, who doesn’t turn 22 until December.
“I feel so good on ice, and I think I [am] ready for the season, and I want to play, and I want to support for [the] team more,” he said, speaking to the media after Monday’s game without a translator.
Michkov has been outspoken about his lack of preparation for his sophomore season in 2025-26. This past summer, in a Russian interview, he said he had lost around 29 pounds since last year’s training camp.
Coming in lighter has been more apparent not just physically but in his skating.
His stride looks less choppy, his base is more underneath him, and he isn’t getting knocked off pucks as much. And his improved skating is noticeable late in games, which he struggled with last year. It was even more readily apparent as he danced around the entire offensive zone and away from two-time Norris Trophy winner Cale Makar to score on Monday.
“His retrievals this year are a lot better,” coach Rick Tocchet said Wednesday. “If you look at [some of] his goals, they’re coming off a rebound; he’s beating his check to the net. He gets two empty-net [goals] from the side, where he’s reading it and he’s beating his check. And the game’s all about beating your check, and I think that’s why he’s moving quicker this year.”
Slava Kuznetsov, the Flyers’ interpreter and one of local Olympian figure skater Isabeau Levito’s coaches, along with his wife Yulia, went to Michkov’s hometown of Perm, Russia, this summer to work with the youngster.
“We work at skate, I think every day; just one day off, the Sunday,” Michkov told The Inquirer recently. “We work more [on conditioning] on ice, conditioning and speed and the crossover. too.
“I don’t like every drill when [there are] no shots. And every drill we have lots of shots and skate together [for] speed.”
Michkov worked on his skating, shooting, and one-timers and credits the hard work in the summer for where his game is now.
“He’s definitely skating better. … I just think he comes out of the corner a little quicker. He’s getting up the ice a little bit quicker, and that just helps push defenses back,” his centerman Noah Cates said Wednesday.
“And if you give him a little space, he knows how to take advantage of it. … [He’s] getting a little bit more room, and obviously a little more comfortable, a little more confident, and we’re seeing it in his game right now.”
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Michkov said this season he wants to work even harder on his game — “maximum one, two days off” — because he has more fun when the team wins. It’s a message he learned this summer, spending time at Artemi Panarin’s camp. He skated and spent time in the gym with veteran Russian players like Panarin and Mikhail Sergachev and said they talked to him about the importance of putting in the hard work.
“My first time. I like it,” he said. “So good when you see superstars, and after you want more harder work [in the] gym and on ice. And this is so good for me, so good experience, and next summer, I think I want same offseason, maybe.”
Michkov is skating on a line with Cates, who was his center for a good chunk of last season, and rookie Porter Martone, who joined the Flyers late last season after completing his freshman year at Michigan State.
Michkov and Martone have connected on the ice with several goals, and off the ice too, with Michkov, who has clearly learned from last season, giving the teenager some advice.
“I know second season every time, so [much] harder than first,” he learned. “And I talk before the season, Marty, second season so hard, and you need more work, and this is better for you.”
Breakaways
The schedule worked out for Hunter McDonald, who was called up on Sunday and made his season debut Monday, as the blueliner grew up approximately 85 miles west of Buffalo’s KeyBank Center. Tocchet thought he moved the puck well and liked his aggressiveness and ability to squash plays. A sixth-round pick in 2022, McDonald is expected to be in the lineup Wednesday against the Sabres alongside Simon Benoit, and will have family in attendance. … Dan Vladař (1-3-1, .889 save percentage) will get the start in goal as the Flyers seem to be rotating their netminders since Joseph Woll started two straight during the first week of the season. … NHL teams released cryptic messages on social media Wednesday in advance of the “Hometown Remix” jerseys being released in early November. Long speculated that the Liberty Bell and a steel gray color will be involved, the numbers in the Flyers’ tweet corresponded to letters spelling out the phrase: “The Bell Tolls.” The Flyers will wear the hometown remix jersey 13 times, beginning Nov. 3 at home against the Minnesota Wild.
