Matvei Michkov is making Kent Hughes and the Canadiens regret it
Matvei Michkov scored his first two career National Hockey League goals in an overtime loss to the Edmonton Oilers on the road last night.
The Flyers' 2023 first-round pick, 7th overall, beat Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner twice in the first period, and let's just say that the first of his two goals is unlikely to surpass Jordan Eberle's as the best first goal in NHL history.
You can also see the 19-year-old Russian forward's first two career goals below.
That said, despite his team's setback, Michkov is having a pretty interesting start in North America, having so far collected three points (2 goals and an assist) since the start of the 2024-2025 season.
Here's another opportunity to remind Canadiens fans that the Russian forward was still available at No. 5 when Kent Hughes and Carey Price announced that the organization had set its sights on an Austrian defenseman named David Reinbacher.
In context, there were many fears and doubts about the young prospect at that time, particularly because of the contract that supposedly tied him to the KHL until the 2025-2026 season.
However, Philadelphia Flyers general manager Daniel Brière pulled off a sleight of hand to get Michkov out of Russia and to North America this year.
Meanwhile, in Montreal, David Reinbacher will likely lose his 19-year-old year, which is crucial in the development of a hockey player, especially a defenseman.
The latter suffered a major injury to his left knee in a preseason game against the Toronto Maple Leafs during training camp and his rehabilitation period is estimated at between five and six months.
It is still far too early to judge this decision by Kent Hughes, but for the time being, let's just say that he does not look very good as he chose to ignore Michkov in 2023.
However, he can console himself, because he is not the only general manager in the league who decided to pass on the one that most experts considered to be the best prospect of his class after a certain Connor Bedard.
| POLL | ||
If you had to do it again, would you have selected Matvei Michkov before David Reinbacher in the 2023 draft? | ||
| Yes | 107 | 57.8 % |
| No | 78 | 42.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
