Sometimes, you know things are bad. Sometimes, you just shrug stuff aside as outside noise. And sometimes, you get blindsided.
That’s what happened to the Flyers on Tuesday when ESPN’s Kevin Weekes put out a post on social media saying that he was told by league sources that Michkov is so frustrated with the Flyers’ season that he would like a change of scenery and that he’s a trade candidate.
The Flyers were surprised by this news. Three team sources told me on Tuesday that they had not heard this – either from Michkov or his direct agent, Paul Theofanus, who works in collaboration with the hockey agency CAA, which represents a slew of NHL players.
I know that when there is a lot of losing, frustration mounts and finger-pointing happens, but that is common in the sport.
Heck, in the middle of a game where they dominated the Vancouver Canucks and led 2-0, television cameras caught Michkov in a heated exchange with teammate Nick Seeler. Michkov was clearly more emotional than Seeler, though it’s not known exactly what each said.
A team source told me on Tuesday that Seeler reminded Michkov that the game plan against Vancouver was to look for passes on the weak side because the Canucks tend to overcommit in their own zone. There was a play where Michkov passed up the opportunity to do that with Seeler.
Michkov responded with anger and frustration. It shows he cares. It shows he’s a competitor. Should he have passed the puck? Meh. I was fine with him choosing to shoot it himself, even if it was a lower-percentage play because, after all, it was Seeler who was the other option, and he’s not exactly an offensive dynamo.
On the other hand, it also wouldn’t have bothered me if he made the pass. The outcome would likely have been the same – they didn’t score on the possession – but it would have been one baby step in the direction of gaining trust with teammates to play through the system and game plan that has been installed rather than improvising on your own.
Flyers G.M. Danny Briere told The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun that Michkov’s reaction is “totally natural.” Maybe the conversation between players should have waited until intermission; that way, it wouldn’t play out publicly. But if you are going to do it there on the ice, or on the bench, be cognizant of who is watching. Seeler has been around the game for a while. He probably should have known better.
Still, it wasn’t the first time two teammates had a shouting match on or near the bench, and it won’t be the last.
But that was the first outward sign of frustration with a teammate that we have seen from Michkov. He’s had emotional outbursts on the bench before, but usually during conversations with coaches.
It could be that his frustrations were mounting and he just kept it internalized until Monday, when it erupted like a volcano.
Maybe his frustrations weren’t just related to communicating with certain players – like when Travis Konecny was banging his stick on the boards for Michkov to come off during a long shift against New York last Thursday.
Maybe Michkov thought the team would accelerate the rebuild by making bigger offseason moves. Maybe he thought he’d have a new contract by now. Maybe he thought all the hard work he put in over the summer would pay off with more immediate trust.
Who knows?
All I know is I was wrong on Monday:
Not the part about Twitter Cockroaches. No, there’s still plenty of them, and they’re not going away. But every indication I had up until that incident last night was that Michkov wanted to play in Philadelphia and succeed here. Hearing otherwise was shocking.
That’s not to say I was blind to the locker-room frustrations. But the ones I heard were never so onerous that it felt like Michkov would want to tap out on Philadelphia.
And frankly, there still might not be, but the fact that we’re even discussing it, meant I was wrong enough.
Now the Flyers have to scramble. Multiple organizational sources said they were completely caught off guard by Weekes’ report. Briere was in Toronto for the GM meetings. Comcast-Spectacor Chairman Dan Hilferty was back home in Philadelphia.
After Weekes’ report went public, both hustled late Tuesday to try to make it in time for the Flyers’ skate at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Edmonton time. But getting to Edmonton by commercial airline isn’t easy.
I was told that the organization will address the report, but they want to talk to Michkov first. President Keith Jones is traveling with the team. Whether he talks publicly, or Briere, or both, or all three with Hilferty, and when it happens, is still to be determined, but the organization knows it can’t wait until the Flyers are back stateside in Columbus later this week. Leadership has to speak beforehand.
What they have to figure out first is why the story broke the way it did. If, in fact, it came from Michkov’s camp – and there’s no reason to believe otherwise, even though my efforts to reach Theofanus to confirm or refute that notion were unsuccessful on Tuesday, Theofanus was, at one time, Weekes’ agent – and why they chose to do it through the media rather than speak directly to the Flyers first.
Maybe the Michkov camp is looking to capitalize on an unhinged online fan base and can get the Flyers to react to items they have been reluctant to touch or downright stubborn about – whether it’s the roster, Michkov’s contract, or replacing Rick Tocchet as head coach.
Maybe all the things that have happened over the past month or so have been highly coordinated. Maybe the wiping of the Instagram page, and then out of nowhere liking Instagram posts about ice time and then the public announcement of displeasure being leaked through a friendly, national media type was highly coordinated – a masterclass in public relations orchestrated by Michkov’s camp, done in a sophisticated manner that curiously may be a little too on point for a 21-year-old who hasn’t necessarily had the easiest time adjusting to North American hockey culture.
Or maybe Michkov really does want out. Maybe this isn’t a ploy to turn the Flyers’ inaction into something to help his team succeed but rather is a pending trade demand. The Flyers executives need to find out right away. That is why booking last-minute flights for Briere and Hilferty to the hardest Canadian city in the league to reach by commercial travel is paramount.
If that’s the case, then far more is at stake here than one mercurial player’s feelings. An entire franchise’s reputation and future are on the line.
And not because Michkov is a generational talent that they can’t afford to lose, but because it would be the second high-end offensive skill player who would want out of Dodge in less than four years (Cutter Gauthier), albeit for different reasons, and completely destroy all the goodwill and equity that management has tried so hard to rebuild since taking over a few years ago.
If they can’t get this rectified with Michkov, there will have to be consequences. People will have to lose their jobs. I never want to call for someone to be unemployed, because that’s not a fun place to be – especially in today’s economy.
But, as one Flyers’ person told me in a recent conversation, “We’re all getting paid very good money to do our jobs, so we better do them or else someone else will.”
Lose Michkov, no matter how much of a headache managing him might be, and it very well could be more than just one person. That’s the inflection point the organization finds itself in as it wakes up in chilly Edmonton on Wednesday morning.
They are left with no choice. Fix it, or be left out in that cold – for what would seem like an eternity.