The Summer Move That Recharged Matvei Michkov’s Development
Oct 13, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Flyers right wing Matvei Michkov (39) skates onto the ice during player introductions against the Florida Panthers during the first period at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
Matvei Michkov finally explained why his season started the way it did, and it wasn’t some mystery.
He said he took four months off from hockey over the summer, which didn’t mean he stopped working or coasted through the offseason; it simply meant he stepped away from the ice and the constant puck-handling grind that had basically defined his entire development. The second he said it out loud, everything about his early season made sense.
He talked about “losing concentration” early, and you could see hints of that. The first few games felt like he had the legs but not the timing, which is normally what happens during the tail end of training camp and preseason games. What people are overlooking is that he didn’t abandon training; he just changed things up. This is a kid who grew up doing almost all his work on the ice, and only later in his teens did the gym become a real part of his routine. This summer, he flipped the script. He focused on strength, power, and building real pop in those first three strides, because by the end of last season, it was obvious he needed more lower-body drive to win and hold space against NHL defenders.
That kind of off-ice work always stunts your timing for a bit, and it showed. He’d get into good positions, but his touches weren’t clean, and his reads came a half-beat late. None of it looked like a conditioning problem; it looked more like someone reconnecting the puck side of his game after spending months building the physical base he lacked at the end of last season. It also didn’t help that the Flyers were constantly killing penalties early on, which squeezed his five-on-five minutes and made it harder for him to find his rhythm. Layer in the offseason ankle issue he admitted to dealing with, and the slow start honestly becomes the most logical outcome.
The interesting part is where things have gone since then. His first few steps have real bite, and you can feel the difference when he turns a corner on a defender because he’s winning lanes instead of waiting for them to open. His timing inside the dots has come back to life, and when Michkov is in rhythm, he finds those little pockets that make him dangerous without needing the puck on his stick for long. His forecheck and back-pressure have more intent because his legs finally have the power to let him arrive early and influence plays before they settle. The lines have stabilized, too, and that consistency matters for someone who scores through pace, rhythm, and repetition rather than improvising shift to shift.
What the four months actually did for him is pretty simple. They allowed him to fully reset, build the power base he didn’t have in his first NHL season, and if he had to pay the price in early timing issues, we would take it. Right now, he looks like a player whose body and instincts are syncing at the same time, and he’s attacking plays with confidence instead of reacting to them. If this continues, the summer that looked strange on paper may end up being the moment his career trends upward, because sometimes stepping away from the rink is exactly what a young player needs to move forward with a stronger engine, steadier habits, and a game that’s rounding into something much sharper than what we saw at the end of last season.
Steve Hamilton
Steve may have been born in California, but don’t let that fool you. After dating a local woman and clashing with her and her family over sports for decades, he has an affinity for Philly sports. Balancing love for Philly and Bay Area sports teams may seem impossible, we can all agree that the Cowboys are the true evil.
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