Sources: Matvei Michkov expected to join the Flyers next season

Christmas has come very early for the Flyers — the Matvei Michkov era is about to begin.

Sources have confirmed to The Inquirer a report from The Fourth Period that all signs are pointing to Michkov joining the Flyers for the 2024-25 season. One source confirmed he has been released by his Kontinental Hockey League team, SKA St. Petersburg.

The news comes one week before a self-imposed June 30 deadline by the Russian club’s chairman Alexander Medvedev in an interview with Match TV in April. Michkov had two more seasons left on his contract with the KHL club. In a May interview with SKA coach Roman Rotenburg by Match TV, the team was reportedly not open to mutually terminating the contract — akin to what happened with goalie Ivan Fedotov and CSKA Moscow — and instead was seeking monetary compensation to end the contract. There is no confirmation regarding the steps taken for Michkov to leave Sunday.

“We’re kind of at the mercy of what they decide to do over there with him,” Flyers general manager Danny Brière said Thursday during his pre-draft press conference. “I wish, if you would have asked me ... maybe a couple of weeks after the season when those rumors started swirling, I’d probably say, well we should know by the end of June and here we are now getting closer to it. We still don’t know much more. I don’t have much more of an answer.

“But for us, it doesn’t change. If they tell us he’s coming on Sept. 1, we’ll jump on it. The mindset for us is still, we’re going into next season without him [and] he has two years left on his contract. If something changes from today until then, we’ll certainly be happy.”

» READ MORE: Could 2023 first-rounder Matvei Michkov play for the Flyers next season?

Brière is probably ecstatic.

Michkov, nicknamed “The Mad Russian” by coach John Tortorella, is a star top-line forward. A left-shot right winger known for his skating and high-end vision, shot, and quickness, the teenager has the potential to bring an offensive talent the Flyers haven’t seen in some time.

After a secret meeting in Voorhees ahead of the 2023 draft, the Flyers took a chance and selected Michkov seventh overall despite knowing his contract situation and timetable. It was a gamble that has finally paid off.

As Brière said in Nashville, “Yeah, we took a big swing, but we hope that this turns out to be a home run.”

Michkov is coming off a historic season for a 19-year-old in the KHL while on loan to Sochi. Despite enduring pneumonia at one point, he had 41 points (19 goals, 22 assists) in 47 regular-season games. The year prior, he had nine goals and 20 points in 27 games despite being the youngest player for Sochi, and his 0.74 point-per-game was the best ever for a draft-eligible player his age in Russia’s top league.

Those eye-popping stats came after the then-15-year-old, playing for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl’s under-16 team, scored 70 goals and 109 points in 26 games. As a 16-year-old, he set the mark for the most points by a player his age in Russia’s top junior league, the MHL, when he had 38 goals and 56 points in 56 games. He followed it up with 30 goals in 28 games as a 17-year-old.

» READ MORE: What to know about top Flyers draft pick Matvei Michkov

At the draft, Michkov told the media through the Flyers’ Russia-based scout Ken Hoodikoff that “the team he wanted to be drafted by” was the Flyers, adding “I’m hoping as soon as I can get out, I’m going to come over,” Michkov said.

“For Matvei, it was pretty cool to see him respond to the question, ‘Are you afraid to play in Philadelphia?’ ” Brière said after selecting the top prospect. “And he said, ‘Absolutely not. I want to be a Flyer. I want to play in a hockey market.’ That’s another thing he said. So that made us feel pretty good about it.”

The question now is, with Michkov coming over, how it can impact the roster.

The Flyers have six right wingers under contract for next season: Owen Tippett, Garnet Hathaway, Travis Konecny, Tyson Foerster, Bobby Brink, and Cam Atkinson. Tippett and Foerster each excelled playing their off-wing for most of the 2023-24 season and Brink, who had an up-and-down campaign, could start next season with Lehigh Valley. Konecny, the team’s top points-getter the past three seasons, can sign an extension on July 1 but has seen his name pop up in recent trade rumors, and in early June, Brière told The Inquirer Atkinson is someone whose name has been discussed as a buy-out candidate.

One thing is clear, the addition of Michkov is a game-changer for the Flyers — in a few ways.