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Matvei Michkov: Red flags that “go far beyond his nationality
The Matvei Michkov case is and always will be a little nebulous, for obvious reasons.

The problem is that the Habs could find themselves in a very precarious situation if the Russian is still available at No. 5 in the next draft.

If the CH passes, the bottom line will be that the club was afraid to get its hands on an exceptional talent.

If the CH does draft him, you know as well as I do that the organization will find itself at the heart of a lot of criticism… A bit like what happened when Logan Mailloux was selected in the summer of 2021.

Do you know what I mean?

The other thing is, it’s hard to evaluate him because we don’t necessarily have access to all his games. Yes, you can catch a glimpse of some footage on YouTube or Twitter if you look hard enough… But that’s not enough to spy on him properly.

At the moment, many are divided over his potential. Some say he’s the best Russian player since Alex Ovechkin, while others seem to find red flags in his game. Renaud Lavoie belongs to the second group.

Renaud was on the “La Dose” podcast earlier this morning and shared his concerns about the main man. His conclusion?

Sometimes, Michkov tends to lack motivation on the ice.

There are videos of him this year dragging his feet. I’ve seen a few of them.

It’s extremely worrying to see what he was doing on the ice. – Renaud Lavoie

As I said earlier, it’s hard to evaluate the whole thing because we haven’t seen him play much this year.

And of course, the fact that he’s Russian may thwart the plans of a few GMs, again for obvious reasons.

What I like about this issue is that practically everyone has a different point of view on the situation. That’s what makes it so exciting for the upcoming draft…

For example, Vincent Damphousse said last night on L’Antichambre that the risk with him is not drafting him… The risk for the Habs is missing out on a player who could become excellent.

The former CH captain pointed to the 2018 selection of Jesperi Kotkaniemi (instead of Brady Tkachuk) to report:

The good news is that the draft is fast approaching and the wait is almost over.

We’re all wondering right now where Michkov is going to end up, even if the red flags are starting to be numerous in his file according to some experts…

And therein lies the beauty of the story.

Burst

– He’s right.

– Mike Sullivan isn’t going anywhere.

– That’s one way of looking at it.

– Excellent paper.

– Nice!

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