With Matvei Michkov expected to be the face of the Philadelphia Flyers for years to come, the Russian influence is expected to continue heading into this year’s draft with GM Daniel Brière in South Beach to scout the ongoing hockey event hosted by Dan Milstein, as reported by On Pattison’s Anthony SanFilippo.
The event is a training camp, which began on June 20th and runs through June 26th, and it tailors around Russian players. It’s a perfect opportunity for both players and teams to see what the next batch of Russian prospects have to offer just before the draft.
With how things have been in recent years between the NHL and KHL, as well as geopolitical tensions, it’s been harder to gauge the Russian market, which has forced a lot of teams to either forego them completely or have them slide and potentially grab them in a later round when there’s less risk involved.
The year Michkov was drafted, there was far too much buzz about the possibility of him never even coming over to North America, let alone the alleged locker room issues he brought along with him. His stock dipped and rather than being an adversary for Connor Bedard at the top of the draft, he slipped to the Flyers at 7.
In fact, the only other team before the Flyers that even had any interest seemed to be the Montréal Canadiens, who went with David Reinbacher instead at #5. The Arizona Coyotes went the Russian route but selected Dimitri Simashev at #6 and even double dipped a few picks later at #12 for forward Daniil But.
With Michkov fully on board and the Flyers having Russian players either at the NHL, AHL, or junior league circuits, they’re becoming somewhat of a haven and it could continue in the next coming years. Goaltending prospect Egor Zavragin might be the most exciting one of them all after Michkov based on his recent track record as starting goaltender for SKA St. Petersburg and HC Sochi.
That brings us to the new batch of prospects hoping to be drafted this coming week. Unlike in recent years, there isn’t a standout Russian prospect expected to be taken in the top half of the first round. However, there are several intriguing prospects near the end of the first round and entering the second to middle rounds.
Daniil Prokhorov might be the most enticing of them all, standing in at 6’6” and nearly 220 pounds as a left winger out of St. Petersburg. He brings about a level of size, physicality, and scoring prowess you don’t generally see out of Russian players – who tend to be more skilled, crafty, and somewhat undersized.
Prokhorov netted 20 goals and 27 points in 43 games in the MHL this season and while there’s a chance he can rise to become a first rounder, many have him pegged in the second round, where the Flyers currently have 3 selections. While they have a plethora of wingers at their disposal, they don’t have anyone in the realm of Prokhorov, and it will be truly interesting to see if he can translate that unique level of skill and size to North America.
Where things get interesting is at the goaltending position, which shouldn’t be all too surprising with the recent influx of netminders coming out of Russia. SanFilippo mentioned three in particular with Pyotr Andreyanov, Semyon Frolov, and Ivan Tkach-Tkachenko, who are supposed to be in attendance in Florida.
You can never have too many goaltending prospects and the Flyers are probably a good example of that considering their track record. It’s not always going to be a slam dunk selection like an Andrei Vasilevskiy or Ilya Sorokin because they can turn into Ivan Fedotov or Aleksei Kolosov. Zavragin is a fantastic piece at the moment but adding to the position will be instrumental, especially if they can get their hands on either of the aforementioned prospects.
With a lot of attention spent on who the Flyers will select with the 6th overall pick – and rightfully so – what they do afterwards is even more important, especially if they keep all or a majority of their 7 picks in the first two rounds.
If they dip their toes into Russian waters once again, there’s going to be several intriguing options to choose from and it helps that they’re more so seen as second round picks or middle round selections rather than in the first round. With less risk involved, it can truly be a low-risk, high reward swing for Briere and company this summer.
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