Michkov

Flyers Notebook: Where does Matvei Michkov to Philadelphia stand?

I’ve written pieces like this on Michkov before, and when I did back then, I began with this same disclaimer that I’ll heavily accentuate now:

I am not a reporter. I do not have inside sources with the Flyers. I sure as hell don’t have inside sources with Russia, a nation whose language I do not speak.

Instead, this will be my best guess to surmise where things stand now in the wake of a series of reports that all seem to be building towards a conclusion that hasn’t yet been actualized.

I’m connecting the dots here. At the risk of sounding immodest, I have always considered myself decent at connecting these dots.

The reports began with this interview with the Chairman of SKA: Medvedev.

This is when we began to know something was happening, but it wasn’t when the story began. When did Medvedev become open to the possibility of Michkov playing in the NHL early, and how did that occur?

It’s pretty easy to piece together that Michkov and his camp went to the Chairman and told him that he would feel more comfortable in the NHL. He pressed that his feelings had everything to do with family and that playing in Russia was like a constant reminder of his father, who passed away only months before he was drafted by the Flyers.

Michkov went to Medvedev for a reason. He went to Medvedev, not because he was the only power player in SKA that he needed to win over, but because he would be the one who is both most powerful and most sympathetic to his plight.

Medvedev was important to win over as an ally, and that interview showed the world exactly why that’s the case.

At this time, the common read from Flyers insiders was that Medvedev opened the door to a 1-year early termination. The logic was sound. If they’re already talking about it now, then they’ll see the logic after they get another year out of Michkov as a commodity.

From the beginning, I had a different read.

My read was predicated on Rotenberg not seeing Michkov playing for SKA as a commodity. My evidence for that is as simple as this: He passed on Michkov playing for SKA for 2 years, both of which he would have been either the most productive player on the team… or ranking among the most productive, in the case of his draft year.

Rotenberg does see Michkov as a financial asset. He’s one of the biggest draws in Russia. That’s why he’d only send Matvei to play for Sochi, the KHL team that shares an owner with SKA. Rotenberg was making the same owner money regardless of where he played the boy, and therefore, the owner wins either way.

That was ultimately what Rotenberg cared about here.

He needed to make money for his owner. His issues with Michkov aren’t personal in the sense that he has any level of animus for the kid. They’re professional issues with a heavy dose of pride.

Rotenberg is sensitive to the idea that he doesn’t know what he’s doing as the coach of a KHL organization. After all, this was a man who said his credentials for the position amounted to “watching at least 800 hockey games.”

When you have a kid like Michkov, blessed with one of the most naturally attuned minds for the sport we’ve ever seen and an unshakable confidence? You’re going to find situations in which Michkov proceeds to tell Rotenberg how to do his job, and worse yet, he might be right.

Rotenberg can’t have that. For one thing, there’s the matter of his pride to grapple with. For another thing, he needs the respect of his players, and he feels like his getting corrected by and/or debating with an 18-19-year-old kid is untenable.

All of this must be said while noting that Rotenberg was the GM who signed Michkov’s KHL contract to begin with. He genuinely cares about the kid. He believes in his abilities, and he wants what’s best for the person.

But for personal and professional reasons, his pride will take precedent.

Hence that Medvedev interview.

At this point, I would surmise that Medvedev had brought up Michkov’s personal feelings several times with Rotenberg and the board of SKA.

He planted the seeds of the idea with Rotenberg. I think he did so carefully, but repeatedly.

He didn’t try to push Rotenberg into accepting the threat of a metaphorical gun. He simply suggested that Rotenberg would be doing everyone a tremendous favor if he acted in a certain manner.

That meets its culmination with the Medvedev interview, where he establishes the idea in the Russian public’s mind that Michkov is personally invested in playing in the NHL. He’s personally invested not because he harbors some disloyal feelings towards the country he loves, but because he needs something–anything–that doesn’t remind him of his father at every single turn.

There isn’t a single person on earth who couldn’t sympathize with that.

And it put Rotenberg in a position where he could either be the hero that gave Michkov, Russia’s prodigal son, everything he needed. Or he could be the villain who held a kid home at gunpoint, and make him walk upon the soil that reminds him of the tragedy that defines his young life with every step he takes.

There was only one realistic option for someone who has both pride in abundance and a reputation to account for like Rotenberg.

It likely happened before this, but this release is when we could be completely confident that talks of buying out the remaining two years of Michkov’s contract were well underway. Rotenberg wouldn’t say something like this in public unless the negotiation was already somewhat close to the finish line.

There would be no reason to risk an egg landing on his face if it turns out that there’s no news to report in a couple of months. He essentially confirms that we’re already working out the fine print of this buyout with a statement he made a day before this one.

Another Update

This brings us to our most recent news drop. This time, it’s an interview from Michkov himself. Of course, before you read a word of what Michkov has to say, the context in which he said those words is important to establish.

At this point, he’s on the cusp of getting everything he wants. Medvedev has been on his side for some time now, and they’ve worked the situation brilliantly to persuade Rotenberg to take his side.

He can’t possibly get himself to North America any faster with anything he says in an interview with Match.tv, but he can certainly get himself into another season of KHL hockey if he says anything to undo all of the progress he’s made. He knows that. Even if he didn’t know it himself, his camp would have told him that several times over.

He vociferously denies any hint of a strained relationship with Roman Rotenberg. He goes one step further and labels the entire thing a false American construct born of ignorance. Why? Is it not clear as day for everyone to see that there’s some level of tension between Michkov and Rotenberg?

Of course it is. It’s clear as day, but there’s truth to what Michkov says in that this is not some kind of personal feud. It’s complicated and probably hard to fully explain to the outside world.

But more importantly, you DO NOT bury somebody who is in the middle of helping you. And you CERTAINLY don’t do that if that person is renowned for being extremely proud.

The interesting line in this report is that he’s preparing the best he can to play in “any situation,” which of course, implies the existence of the process to buy him out of his contract with SKA.

And that brings us to the present day where Michkov’s contract with SKA remains active. As I see it, that’s only true for a short while now. We are biding our time and waiting for the legal process to complete.

Every aspect of a buyout in the KHL is negotiable. It isn’t like the NHL with rules and set by the CBA that are completely set in stone. There are guidelines, but even things established by guidelines can be altered.

The negotiation of Michkov’s buyout agreement will, and has, included talks of every aspect. He’s talked about the price he’ll have to pay. He’s talked about the timeframe he’ll have to deliver that money. He’s probably talked about how and where he’ll come up with the money. He’s talked about what would happen if he didn’t present the money before the deadline established by this agreement.

Every single one of those things has been spoken about at length with SKA.

They’re likely including a clause in the contract that would allow Michkov to return to Russia in the event he’s sent to the AHL, and frankly, any time he so desires. At that point, the Flyers would have to be in the loop because it concerns them.

All of these things will take time to hash out, but ultimately, I think we hear news of Michkov signing his ELC sometime by the end of June.

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Mandatory Credit: KHL

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