Matvei Michkov: his second half of the KHL season was perfect

The Canadiens may be lucky enough to draft Matvei Michkov with the fifth overall pick in the upcoming NHL Entry Draft. Selecting him may seem risky given the problems surrounding his KHL team, SKA St. Petersburg, but his play could convince several general managers to take a chance on him.

Michkov began the season with SKA St. Petersburg, but failed to pick up a point in three games. The organization therefore decided to send him out on loan to Sochi, with whom he enjoyed an incredible second half of the season.

In fact, it was the best second half of any European league prospect’s season in the last 5-6 years, as reported by Elite Prospects’ Director of European Recruiting, Lassi Alanen.

Matvei Michkov’s second-half stint in the KHL was arguably the best any draft-eligible prospect has played in a top European pro league over the past 5-6 years, at least from a data perspective.

More charts are featured in David’s video below. #2023NHLDraft https://t.co/Tdv0w8y6PK pic.twitter.com/LyTVnHgP0j

– Lassi Alanen (@lassialanen) May 15, 2023

Alanen compared Mishkov’s game with all the forwards available in the draft who have played in the SHL (Sweden’s premier league) in recent years, and the results speak for themselves.

Michkov excels in every aspect of the game except defense. However, he makes up for it with his puck retrieval, which looks pretty good. David St-Louis of Elite Prospects also explains that, even if Michkov isn’t physically imposing, he’s not afraid to go into the corners and serve up good checks to retrieve the puck.

Offensively, he’s simply perfect. He scored just over a goal every 60 minutes of play. He has officially scored 9 goals in 27 games. For a young player already playing professionally, that’s excellent.

He also collected more than two assists for every 60 minutes played (11 assists in 27 games). That gives him a total of 20 points in 27 KHL games at the age of 18. That’s excellent. For comparison’s sake, Alexander Ovechkin had just 23 points in 53 KHL games the year he was drafted. It’s safe to say that Mishkov is impressive at his age.

Michkov completed his junior season with HC Kapitan. He collected 7 points, including 4 goals, in 5 games. However, his team lost in three games during their Round of 16 series against SKA-1946.

The future looks bright for Matvei Michkov, but the general managers will now have to decide whether he’s worth selecting with all the problems surrounding him. His game should be enough to convince at least one of them.