Here is the first one. I did a smaller report pre-NHL to show what his tendencies were. No that he’s played a portion of the season. Here are some of the things that stand out, good and bad. 

The first is his usage. His TOI is good at 17:43. 3:25 is power play time so that cuts into how they use him five-on-five, which is the biggest area where he can develop over time. According to InStat his d-zone starts are 7%, neutral zone is the same and he’s at 86% o-zone starts. All rookies need some protected minutes, but Macklin Celebrini is at 71% on o-zone starts. The Flyers let Michkov play his game at the beginning and now are trying to get better all-around play from him and scratching him isn’t the answer. The answer is by playing him and allowing him to learn by making mistakes.  

photo by Katelynn Reiss.

A positive is 61% of his shots are on goal. That’s great. But he only takes an average of 3.2 shots per game. He must shoot more.  

The stat that’s getting to me is he’s getting hit an average of .94 hits per game and I expect that to go up. So, the “notion” that Nic Deslauriers was going to protect him isn’t working. At this point you can’t justify his playing time but that’s another item for another day. 

The Flyers should put Michkov on a schedule, like the Ducks did with Leo Carlsson. It just works better and then the player knows when they will be scratched (days off was the term and that’s a positive) but John Tortorella doesn’t coach that way. 

I’m not suggesting coddling him; I am just saying there is a way to do this, and the Ducks gave teams the blueprint. And to be fair, Carlsson still needs more work. It’s hard to do well in the NHL at a young age. Very few can do it. Michkov will progress in due time.