Matvei Michkov is the 2023 NHL Draft’s most intriguing player
While Connor Bedard is the unquestioned top player in the 2023 NHL Draft class, 18-year-old Russian Matvei Michkov may be a close second.
Although most scouting services have Michkov ranked at a top-five prospect, many scouts and general managers have been speculating he could fall beyond the No. 5 pick for a handful of reasons—the most significant of which being he’s under contract with SKA Saint Petersburg in the Russian Kontinental Hockey League through the 2025-26 season.
But if his contract status weren’t an issue, just how high would Michkov be picked?
“Michkov would seriously be in the conversation for us if we had the No. 2 pick,” an anonymous NHL executive told The Athletic’s Corey Pronman. “I get all the risks but he could honestly push Bedard in terms of pure ability.”
“He’s a hockey genius,” another executive told Pronman. “He’s the second-best player in the draft, and all things being equal, could push Bedard as a pure player.”
Pronman himself even noted that Michkov’s ceiling as a pure offensive talent may rival or even surpass Bedard’s.
“Michkov may be the best draft eligible I’ve ever seen from inside the offensive blue line,” he stated. “…He sees the game at a different level and is a scoring-chance machine once he gets the puck inside the opponent’s zone.”
While Michkov’s stat sheet is nowhere near as impressive as Bedard’s—he scored 19 goals and 34 points in 39 games to Bedard’s 71 goals and 143 points in 57 games—he possesses elite-level offensive skills that have been sharpened from years of competing against grown men in the KHL.
In fact, his 0.67 points-per-game average is the highest ever for a KHL player entering the NHL Draft, and scouts have salivated at possibly landing a player with the kind of refined puck-handling and shooting ability Michkov already has.
“I believe he is closer to challenging Bedard at No. 1 than most people think,” FC Hockey scout Jake Janso said. “While Bedard boasts a more well-rounded and mature game, he does not have the pure offensive upside that Michkov does. If everything breaks right for Michkov, he may end up being the most prolific scorer from this class.”
Reports indicate that Michkov won’t make it past the Washington Capitals at pick No. 8. And with Russian superstar Alex Ovechkin, it’s easy to connect the dots as to why.
If teams were drafting based purely on talent, there’s a good chance Michkov would go second overall behind Bedard. However, waiting a minimum of three years before Michkov can even play in an NHL arena might be enough to scare off enough teams that the talented Russian falls into someone’s lap.
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