Flyers Lure Rein… er … Michkov to North America
June 24, 2024
By Grant McCagg
Matvei Michkov is coming over to North America to play in the Flyers organization. What does this have to do with David Reinbacher? If you follow social media – apparently…it has EVERYTHING to do with him.
It is stunning how many folks seem to think that the Canadiens reached for Reinbacher at fifth overall when NHL teams unanimously had him pegged as the top defenceman in the draft class. Many teams had Reinbacher ahead of Michkov – yet ever since Draft Day, the Canadiens have been lambasted on Twitter by the masses, and that includes a lot of media members.
Late last week before completing Recrutes Draft Guide I had one last chat with a scout about how much teams value defencemen at the draft, and we touched upon Reinbacher, and and whether he was a sought-after commodity going into the draft.
“Every game I went to in Switzerland last year to see Reinbacherā¦the stands were completely jammed full of scouts,” said the scout. “That tells you all you need to know about what teams thought of him.”
One of those teams was Columbus, who, from about February on, was pretty much a lock to be either last or second last in the standings by season’s end. Trevor Timmins made a European trip in mid-winter and saw Reinbacher multiple times, so this notion that Montreal somehow reached for Reinbacher at fifth overall is unfounded. All of the teams drafting in the top ten scouted him extensively.
The scout I chatted with confirmed what many of us have heard since the draft – that Arizona would have taken Reinbacher at six if the Canadiens had passed on him.
“That’s who wanted him (next),” noted the scout. “They thought he’d be there. Then they were f**ked when Montreal took him. Then they didn’t know the board, and they spent too much cheese picking Simashev. They could have picked him later.
“They panicked; it was like they had no Plan B for the possibility of Reinbacher not being there. They could have traded down five places and got him. they needed to have a contingency plan. They didn’t have to spend it all on that pick because they didn’t have a backup plan. They were not prepared for the Canadiens taking Reinbacher – they were not ready.”
Folks are making huge assumptions that the 5-10 Michkov is going to enter the NHL and just completely tear it up because he produced in the KHL at 18 and 19 years of age. It reminds me of the last teenager to put up very good stats in the KHL, and how that supposedly guaranteed NHL superstardom.
Tolvanen scored 25 goals in 60 KHL games in 2017-18, a pace of .43 gpg. Six of those goals came in 11 playoff games, a .55 gpg pace….all before the age of 19.
Michkov turned 19 last December, and in 47 games he scored 19 goals, a .40 gpg pace. Tolvanen at the same age had a lot of similarities to Michkov. Both were about 5-10, both were opportunistic and not noted for their play away from the puck, both had good puck skills and heavy shots, and both weren’t dynamic skaters for their size.
Much like Michkov, Tolvanen headed to North America one season after he was drafted, and stardom was widely predicted on social media. After all, he had broken Evgeni Kuznetsov’s record for most goals scored by an 18-year-old in the KHL – somehow this guaranteed that he would be lights out in the NHL:
What’s especially puzzling about this need to compare a 5-10 offence-first forward to a 6-3 defence-first defenceman is that Montreal has had great success drafting in the first round the past five drafts. If it’s because Kotkaniemi is deemed to have been a bust pick in 2018, that’s all fine and dandy, but it’s a completely different management team in place, so why would the Canadiens be singled out as the team that “missed” by passing on Michkov?
Would it not be ridiculous if the Canadiens took Beckett Sennecke after Columbus chose Anton Silayev, and folks started comparing the two players after they were drafted? Let’s say that happened and Sennecke proceeded to have an extremely productive OHL season where he topped 100 points while Silayev had a regular role in the KHL but didn’t produce at a high rate. Will Twitter be inundated with people criticizing Columbus for passing on Sennecke, and comparing the two players? We know the answer to that. There won’t be ANYONE doing that.
For reasons unbeknownst to me – an organization that has hit on many of its draft picks over the past five seasons, and have arguably drafted as well as any NHL team (with their prospect rankings in many top five lists)…both the media and fans all over North America continue to pinpoint the Canadiens as being the only club that may suffer from a prospect they passed on perhaps being successful elsewhere.
Here is one example:
I like JR and think he is an entertaining radio personality but this comment is fairly ironic coming from a media guy in a town where they recently used a top-ten pick on Tyler Boucher. I would also bet a fair dollar that he didn’t see Michkov play once in the past two seasons but he still felt the need to make this declaration.
Why would it only be the Canadiens who might regret passing on a player who six teams passed on? Shouldn’t it be Utah (formerly Arizona) that would most regret not taking Michkov? They did, after all, choose a defenceman no team had ranked as the best one; not even the Coyotes. Arizona is the club that “reached” in the top six. Why would the Canadiens regret taking who most feel was the best defencemen in a draft class? Especially when there is simply no guarantee that Michklov will become an NHL superstar?
I scouted 50+ of Michkov’s games over the past two seasons, and he has work to do before his NHL coach entrusts him with a top-line role facing other team’s best players. The only thing close to a guarantee for me at this point is that Flyers coach John Tortorella isn’t going to like how Michkov plays away from the puck – just as the coach in SKA Pavel Rotenberg didn’t – and because of that, loaned him out to Sochi each of the previous two seasons. It is anything but a certainty that Michkov becomes an NHL superstar.
It’s also far from a guarantee that Reinbacher ends up being a disappointing selection. I saw nothing last year to suggest that he will become anything other than a top-three defencemen on a contender, and perhaps even a #1. Those don’t grow on trees.
Excellent and well thought out.