Flyers’ Briere, Jones tell Michkov he’s staying

Despite some apparent bench spats with his teammates this past week and a circulating report about an interest in a change of scenery, the Philadelphia Flyers remain locked in on Matvei Michkov.

During the Saturday Headlines segment of Sportsnet’s Saturday Night Hockey, Elliotte Friedman reported on the latest regarding Michkov and the Flyers.

“One of the big stories of the week was Matvei Michkov and the relationship between him and the Flyers and some of his teammates. … On their road trip and in Edmonton this week, where Daniel Briere, the GM, Keith Jones, the president of hockey operations, and Dan Hilferty, the CEO of Comcast Spectacor, the parent company, Jones met with Michkov face to face, Briere met with Michkov face to face, I don’t know if Hilferty did, I can’t say one way or the other.

“But the one thing they made very clear to him, with a couple days now to figure it all out, is that he’s part of the team’s future and he’s not getting traded.”

Michkov, 21, is in the midst of his third season with the Flyers and, after Saturday’s matchup against the Columbus Blue Jackets, a 4-3 win, has 11 goals and five assists in 22 games.

The Russian, who was the seventh overall pick in the 2023 draft, is in the final year of his three-year entry-level contract.

“The other thing that I believe they did was they asked around with some of the younger players who are closer to Michkov’s age about how they felt about him as well, and I think the feedback was positive,” added Friedman.

“So they are going to build this around Michkov and his young teammates. That is their goal here. They told him he was not in danger of being traded.”

Briere also echoed that notion when he spoke to Sportsnet’s Frank Seravalli earlier this week, saying of trade rumours, “This is all news to me. No, that’s not the plan at all. We’ve never discussed that.”

The Flyers entered play Saturday sitting seventh in the Metropolitan Division.