We’re only one day away from the first round of the 2023 NHL Draft in Nashville, and everyone wants to know where Matvei Michkov will end up.
Michkov is widely considered to be the best Russian prospect available in years. The HC Sochi forward collected 20 points in 27 KHL games as a 17/18-year-old and some feel he’s the only player in this draft who can challenge Connor Bedard in the NHL.
The situation in Russia has complicated things, as has Michkov’s KHL contract — he’s locked in with HC Sochi through 2025–26. But Michkov is in Nashville for this week’s draft and, as Daily Faceoff‘s Frank Seravalli indicated on Tuesday, teams have been impressed with the young winger in their interviews with him.
Here’s what Seravalli had to say on Tuesday’s episode of "Daily Faceoff Live."
Frank Seravalli: Everyone’s intrigued as to where Matvei Michkov ends up going. The fascinating part of this draft is that prior to this week in Nashville, no one’s really been able to get their hands on this player, not just to see in person with viewings because Russia has essentially been closed off to the outside world, but no one has talked directly to Matvei Michkov. No one had interviewed him until yesterday, here in Nashville.
There have been all kinds of nefarious speculation out there and things — rumors have been running rampant for months. Won’t get into all the details as to what or why, but he was sort of painted out, at least the chatter in the industry was, to be this negative influence or force and this “bad guy” or whatever it might be. And all I can tell you is, some of that’s just draft hype and speculation, teams that are trying to suppress things, and there are all sorts of “take everything you hear with a grain of salt” at this time of year because you just expect that people are lying to you.
Just wanted to share with everyone, from some of the teams that did interview him yesterday, the response was very positive, and they felt like they came away impressed. Just one interview with a translator, you’re not hearing it directly from his mouth, you’re maybe always curious — “Was the translator just feeding you what he was told to?” — again, just to continue with the nefarious speculation. But just the point saying that the teams were impressed.
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