This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Matvei Michkov
Philadelphia Flyers Right Wing
26 goals and 63 points as a 20-year-old rookie, on a club that conceded 265.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | PHI | 80 | 26 | 37 | 63 | -18 | 46 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 199 | 13.1 | 16:41 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 80 | 26 | 37 | 63 | -18 | 46 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 199 | 13.1 | 16:41 |
This Season So Far
The 2025-26 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
26 goals and 37 assists in 80 games — 63 points as a 20-year-old in his first NHL season, at 16:41 a night, with 8 power-play goals and 3 game-winners on 199 shots.
52.6 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five, the 76th percentile. His ice went 36-42 against an expectation of 42.98-38.76 — seven goals of scoring missing and three extra conceded, which is the shape of every Flyer’s on-ice record last season and has almost nothing to do with him. The minus-18 is a goaltending statistic.
The Finesse Game
The hands are the best on this roster and among the best on any roster in this book at his age. He holds the puck through contact, he changes his mind mid-play, and he beats a goaltender from an angle a goaltender has not accounted for.
199 attempts at a median of 25 feet with 39 per cent from inside 20. The release is deceptive rather than heavy — he does not overpower anybody and he does not have to. 37 assists says the vision is real and not a by-product of the shooting.
The Physical Game
5-10 and 172 pounds and among the lightest forwards in the league. He is not going to win a puck on the wall and he does not try to; the game is played in space and he creates the space himself.
46 penalty minutes in 80 games is a rookie learning what he can get away with. He does not avoid contact and he does not seek it, and the body will have to fill out for the middle of his career to look like the start of it.
The Intangibles
Seventh overall in 2023, and the seven clubs that passed on him did so because nobody knew when — or whether — he would leave Russia. He arrived two years early.
80 games and 63 points in a first season, on a club that finished 27th. The whole of the rebuild is now organised around him.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 999 minutes
- Expected goals
- 52.6%
- 76th pct
- Shot attempts
- 48.6%
- 39th pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 36 for, 42 against. Expected: 43.0 and 38.8.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 15 points of one another. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason.
Both bars are percentiles among the 637 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 81 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Usual linemates
2024-25 · 999 minutes at five-on-five
- Owen Tippett34%
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2024-25
- The club
- PHI took 52.1% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 52.6% — 0.5 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- First line, 999 minutes at five-on-five — 60th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sean Couturier | 52.6% | 52.5% | 51.8% |
| Jamie Drysdale | 51.0% | 53.5% | 49.0% |
| Owen Tippett | 54.7% | 51.6% | 53.1% |
52.6% together, 52.5% for him apart and 51.8% for Couturier apart. Splitting them up moved neither man. Whatever is driving the share, it is not this pairing.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
287 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 29 of them goals. His median goal came from 17 feet. 39% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 23% from beyond forty.