In the lead-up to the 2023 NHL Draft, Matvei Michkov apparently wanted nothing more than to be a Philadelphia Flyer.

He chose not to even communicate with other, less preferred clubs at the top of the draft order. He visited the Flyers‘ facilities in Voorhees, New Jersey pre-draft for a secret meeting. And he couldn’t have been happier on draft night itself, when the Flyers made him the seventh overall selection of the evening and officially added him to their organization.

A little over three years later — at least according to Kevin Weekes of ESPN — the Flyers have become so distasteful to Michkov that he apparently wants out.

Weekes’ report on Tuesday afternoon came as a surprise to the Flyers, a source confirmed to PHLY on Tuesday. At least as of early evening, they had yet to receive a formal trade request from Michkov or his camp. And per another source, Michkov’s North American agent Paul Theofanous (also Weekes’ agent) informed the team that the report did not come from him.

But despite the lingering uncertainty surrounding the origin of the report — it is at least possible that it’s not actually reflective of Michkov’s current headspace — it really shouldn’t have come as a major surprise to anyone, given the events of the past few weeks. From the outside, it certainly appeared that tensions were rising within the Flyers’ locker room as their miserable 2026-27 season continued.

First, there were Nick Seeler’s comments after the team’s 5-2 loss to Washington on October 28, that became easy to link to Michkov specifically after head coach Rick Tocchet provided his interpretation that Seeler was referencing players extending their shifts too long — which Michkov had memorably done just 24 hours earlier in the lead-up to Columbus’ game-winning overtime goal.

Then, last Thursday versus the Rangers, there was a flare-up on the bench when Michkov appeared to extend another shift longer than the Flyers bench wanted, leading to Travis Konecny (who was due to take Michkov’s place on the ice) banging his stick along the boards in an attempt to gain Michkov’s attention, which sparked a shouting match on the bench once Michkov finally did return.

Next, later that night, either Michkov or someone in his camp liked two Instagram posts critical of Michkov (and rookie Porter Martone’s) usage in the just-concluded game; news of the likes quickly went viral on social media the following day and strongly hinted at growing frustration on the part of Michkov with his deployment. Two days later in Calgary, Michkov more or less confirmed to the traveling media that he did indeed want more ice time.

And finally, on Monday night, NBC Sports Philadelphia’s broadcast caught Michkov on camera in a heated argument with Nick Seeler on the bench, agitated to the point that multiple teammates worked to calm him down.

So yes, the escalation to a reported desire for a “new start” is a surprise, in that the Flyers didn’t see it coming at this instant. But it didn’t come out of nowhere. This has been boiling for weeks, if not far longer.

And it’s on the Flyers for letting it get to this point.

Look, no one is saying that Matvei Michkov is a low-maintenance, easy-to-handle player. The rumors about him being a difficult teammate were prevalent in league circles pre-draft, and fully broke into the public consciousness after the draft, likely the result of leaks from Montreal as they looked to justify to apoplectic Habs fans their decision to pass on him at No. 5 in favor of David Reinbacher. And by Michkov’s own admission, he’s a hyper-competitive athlete who despises losing, and wants to not only be a good NHL player, but the best NHL player.

A headstrong, brash youngster with that level of ambition — not to mention an essentially nonexistent handling of the English language, at least when he first arrived — was never going to be a typical set-it-and-forget-it hockey prospect.

But the Flyers took the plunge anyway back in 2023, for one big reason: the talent justified it. Matvei Michkov spent most of his young life as a hockey phenom, putting up the kind of numbers in Russian junior leagues that only future stars do. And when he came over to North America (two years earlier than expected, it should be noted), he immediately showcased that upside.

The big rookie year. The clutch goals. The “how did he even see that?” set-ups. One could debate over the specifics of Michkov’s long-term upside, but it seemed glaringly obvious after Year 1 that Michkov had the raw talent to be an excellent scoring forward at the NHL level, at least. Maybe more. The Flyers just needed to handle the rest of his development properly, to ensure that he continued to make progress on the ice while avoiding disaster and drama off it.

Yeah, that’s gone well.

Michkov isn’t a saint here, to be clear. He did indeed have an unproductive summer in 2025 and reported to camp in poor NHL shape. He shouldn’t be overstaying shifts, and ideally wouldn’t be losing his temper on the bench. Per multiple sources, Michkov absolutely can be abrasive with teammates.

But in the end, it’s the Flyers’ job to handle and manage all of that. That was the responsibility they accepted when they spent one of their rebuild’s most valuable assets — the seventh overall pick — on him back in 2023, and then presented him as the centerpiece of their rebuild (general manager Daniel Briere and president of hockey operations Keith Jones literally carried his equipment at the airport in 2024 upon arrival to the United States) and the organization’s best hope for a brighter future. They made their bed, right then and there.

Yet at every turn, the infrastructure put in place to get Michkov and the Flyers to that future has proven incapable of putting out the many Michkov-related fires that have emerged over the past year and change. The organization has repeatedly failed in their attempts to consistently “turn down the temperature” when it comes to their young star.

There was Tocchet’s insistence last season upon bringing up the fitness issue whenever he became frustrated with questions about Michkov’s ice time, which would invariably lead to social media uproar (and once led to Briere having to step in personally with a pre-game press conference). Tocchet even admitted he went overboard with this in a frank September interview with The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz.

There was the coaching staff’s multi-month decision in 2025-26 to move Michkov to left wing instead of his preferred RW spot — again leading to a public uproar that was only quelled when Michkov was returned to the right side full-time after the Bobby Brink trade (which dovetailed with Michkov’s late-season scoring surge).

There was the inability on the part of the front office to meaningfully improve the team this summer, and the team’s lack of readiness to play with NHL-level intensity to start the season — two factors that led to the awful start that sent internal vibes spiraling. (A start that Weekes in his report cited as part of the reason for Michkov’s change-of-heart regarding the Flyers, by the way.)

There was the inability to successfully manage Michkov’s apparent frustration with his usage this season — especially after he took the fitness criticism to heart and came to training camp fully transformed physically — culminating in the Instagram likes. Tocchet’s fanning of the flames after the Seeler comment two weeks ago. And finally, the fact that even after two seasons and change, Michkov and his teammates have seemingly still not figured out how to comfortably coexist.

It’s unclear how exactly the Flyers should have handled all of these situations. But it’s pretty obvious in retrospect that they shouldn’t have handled them the way they actually did. Because what they did simply didn’t work.

Maybe it was never going to be easy to manage a player like Michkov. But the Flyers knew they needed one like him, potential warts and all. Given their team-building decision to not bottom out and pick at the very top of the draft for multiple seasons in a row, they were never (barring lottery luck) going to get a “perfect” future star like Macklin Celebrini or Connor Bedard or Matthew Schaefer. Those types simply don’t slip to No. 7. To get a player of that caliber where they were drafting, it was always going to come in project form.

So simply blaming Michkov for this doesn’t fly. Even in a world where the current situation is entirely his fault, if no organization could have possibly developed him absent crippling drama and chaos, then Briere and the rest of the front office blew the 2023 seventh overall pick due to insufficient pre-draft research, and he and the rest of the organization deserve severe criticism for flubbing such a critical choice. Rebuilds fail because of blown top-10 picks.

More likely, however, there was some untraveled path, some combination of a different roster mix, a different coaching staff, a different set of organizational priorities, that would have allowed this Michkov developmental process to progress far smoother than it has. That would have gotten Michkov as close to his ceiling as possible while keeping him in good standing in the locker room and not giving even a passing thought to asking out.

The Flyers have just, to this point, failed to find it. The general manager, the president, the coach, the team — everyone.

If this situation is still salvageable, if it turns out that Weekes’ report isn’t actually reflective of Michkov’s current state of mind (or it can be changed), then the Flyers need to fix things — now. Get the locker room on the same page regardless of their current feelings towards the kid. Get the coach to stop making ill-advised public comments (or find one who will). Find someone — a player, a coach, an advisor, anyone — who can connect with Michkov and help temper his more counterproductive impulses.

And if the situation isn’t salvageable, if Weekes is right that over the course of three and a half years, Michkov has gone from being ecstatic to join the Flyers to desperate to leave them, then the organization needs to be held accountable — top to bottom. Because if Michkov does indeed have to be traded — likely for far less than the kind of value a high-end young player would usually garner, given the trade request and the drama surrounding it — then a rebuild that from the start was low on blue-chip assets suddenly is down to barely any at all.

Without Michkov (or a comparable return talent-wise in a trade), the chances of this rebuild producing a Stanley Cup contender are close to nil. And that can’t stand without serious consequences for all involved.