At one point in the 2023 Draft class evaluation process, Russian phenom Matvei Michkov was considered to be almost neck-and-neck with the now-surefire first overall selection Connor Bedard.
Michkov, as a 16-year-old, broke a Russian record previously held by Alex Ovechkin for the youngest player to ever suit up for the Russian National Team. Since then, he’s found some consistency issues in his game but is still projected as at least the third-best player in the draft.
Ovechkin’s Washington Capitals have a nonzero percent chance at selecting first, second, or third overall so it’s important Caps fans get acquainted with Michkov after doing the same with Bedard and Adam Fantilli.
Michkov first burst onto the prospect scene with an absurd 2019-20 season with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in the Under-16 Russian junior league. In just 26 games, the Perm native amassed 109 points (70g, 39a), an incredible 4.19 point per game scoring ledger.
A year later, he jumped up an age group to the Under-20 MHL level and did more record-breaking. His 56 points (38g, 18a) are the most any 16-year-old has ever recorded in a single MHL season. The list of names he jumped over to take hold of that mark includes current NHLers Nikita Kucherov (54), Pavel Buchnevich (44), Kirill Kaprizov (34), Kirill Marchenko (26), Grigori Denisenko (22), and Klim Kostin (21).
That same season Michkov starred for Russia at the 2021 IIHF World Under-18 Championship, going head-to-head with Bedard. Despite coming up short to Canada and Bedard in the Gold Medal Game, Michkov led all players in scoring with 16 points (12g, 4a) and was named MVP of the tournament.
Those 16 points were the second-highest total for a 16-year-old ever at the U18 games, behind the 18 points that Ovechkin (2002) and Mikhail Grigorenko (2011) scored in their respective tournaments. Only Ovechkin scored more goals (14) in his age-16 appearance.
During the 2021-22 campaign, Michkov made his KHL debut with SKA St. Petersburg after leading Russia to gold at the 2021 Hlinka-Gretzky Cup alongside current Capitals prospect Ivan Miroshnichenko. He got into 13 total KHL games and recorded five points (2g, 3a) but once again did most of his damage that season in the MHL.
In 28 MHL games, Michkov put up 51 points (30g, 21a). He saved his best for the end of the season though as his 17 points (13g, 4a) in 17 playoff games helped SKA-1946 St. Petersburg secure the MHL championship. The uber-talented winger ended up scoring the championship-winning goal with a lacrosse move.
Did Matvei Michkov score the championship-winning goal via the lacrosse move?
Of course, he did.
He finishes the playoffs with 13 goals and 17 points in 17 playoff games – that’s a new MHL playoff goal record for U18 skaters pic.twitter.com/2zIQXonn7k
— /Cam Robinson/ (@Hockey_Robinson) April 25, 2022
Michkov split last season between three levels of Russian hockey (MHL, VHL, KHL) but spent the majority of his time in the KHL.
It was a rough and tumble year for the youngster as he started it on the shelf for two months after taking a very awkward hit from former Montreal Canadiens and Nashville Predators defenseman Alexei Emelin.
#2023NHLDraft Matvei Michkov slow to get up after this hit by #DMN Alexei Emelin. #SochiHockeyOpen pic.twitter.com/aTnXMb8wiZ
— Hockey News Hub (@HockeyNewsHub) August 4, 2022
Things did not get back on track for Michkov until October when he was sent to SKA-Neva of the VHL, the KHL’s AHL-equivalent league. There he scored at above a point-per-game pace again, racking up 14 points (10g, 4a) in 12 games. The only other draft-eligible player to ever equal Michkov’s goal output was Miroshnichenko who had scored 10 VHL goals the season prior.
Michkov was eventually loaned to the KHL’s bottom-dwelling HC Sochi where he was finally given consistent ice time at the top level in Russia. In 27 games with HC Sochi, he recorded 20 points (9g, 11a). Even if you include the three games he played for SKA St. Petersburg in the KHL where he was sometimes skating less than two minutes a game, his .67 points per game rate was the highest for a draft-eligible player in KHL history.
By comparison, Evgeny Kuznetsov had only eight points (2g, 6a) in 35 games (.23) in the KHL in his draft year. Michkov even outpaced Ovechkin’s totals of 24 points (13g, 11a) in 53 games (.45) in his draft year in what was at the time known as the Russian Superleague.
Michkov has never officially played a game at an Under-20 World Junior Championship due to COVID annulling the results of the two games he played during the 2022 tournament and then Russia being banned from the continuation of that tournament and the 2023 tournament due to the invasion of Ukraine.
Those geopolitical factors limiting in-person scouting and the fact that Michkov is signed in the KHL through the 2025-26 season have dropped him down some draft boards. So much so, that some wonder if the Caps stick at eighth overall that he could even be available there. With that being said, it’s highly likely that without any outside negative forces, Michkov would be drafted before Fantilli in June.
The five-foot, ten-inch, 172-pound right wing has all of the potential in the world to be one of the NHL’s top offensive talents. If the Caps are lucky enough to be able to select him, they’ll add a possible superstar to a prospect cupboard that is in dire need of a talent influx.
The Draft Lottery will be held tonight at 8 PM ET and aired on ESPN.
2023 NHL Draft Prospect Profiles
Headline photo: @matvey_michkov39/Instagram
