Less than halfway through his first season coaching the Philadelphia Flyers, Rick Tocchet is already tired of answering questions about your favorite player.
By now, it’s no secret that Matvei Michkov, the young franchise forward, has not had the sophomore season everyone hoped he would. The 21-year-old Russian has eight goals, 11 assists, and 19 points in 34 games and is pacing for a major statistical regression across the board.
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Not helping matters is the fact that Michkov’s average ice time is wallowing at just 14:43, down nearly a full two minutes from the 16:41 he carried under John Tortorella (and Brad Shaw) last season, despite his shooting percentage (12.3% compared to 13.1%) remaining similarly above-average.
The Flyers’ former No. 7 overall pick has not visibly regressed by the eye test, though it can be stated that the Flyers’ reliance on a cycle-based system has greatly inhibited his offensive production compared to the previous transition-heavy system under Tortorella.
Signed on for five years, it’s now Tocchet’s responsibility to coach Michkov back to his previous form and then some, but giving a daily, or even weekly, report card on the young talent fans pay to watch play isn’t of interest to him at this time.
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“We’re 17-10, we’ve got a good record… I’ve answered six Michkov questions. Enough’s enough, guys. I’m getting a little…,” Tocchet stammered to the media on Monday.
“Vladar’s having a really good year for us. Drysdale’s playing really good 5-on-5 for us. Yorkie’s doing a really good job. We’ve got a lot of other players playing good and it’s a team game. I mean, this is the fifth question. I appreciate it, but you’re trying to make it something it’s not.
“He’s got to learn to play the game, and he’s trying. He’s a lot better defensively. He’s a lot better playing a team game, and that’s how you win hockey. It’s not about catering to one person, I hate to tell you guys. That’s it.”
If Flyers fans, and even Vancouver Canucks fans, feel like they’ve seen and heard this movie before, it’s because they have.
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Just over a year ago, last December, Tocchet did the exact same thing with forward Elias Pettersson, the Canucks’ franchise forward who would soon be left as the last man standing with J.T. Miller getting traded in January.
“Yeah, that’s what you expect him to do, right? He’s done a good job producing. I don’t know what else to say,” Tocchet had said. “You guys are obsessed with Petey, huh? It’s Petey, Petey, Petey every game. I know what you’re saying. I love you guys, but it gets old… I know you want me to say the wrong thing. That’s why. I’m not falling for that trap anymore.”
Pettersson, of course, stumbled to a career-worst year that saw him produce just 15 goals, 40 assists, and 45 points in 64 games. Before Tocchet’s first full season as the Canucks’ coach, Pettersson was a 102-point player in 2022-23 establishing himself as one of the NHL’s most lethal centers.
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By the end of the 2024-25 season, Pettersson’s average ice time was just 18:40 – a stark, near-two-minute departure from the 20:33 he averaged in his banner campaign two years prior.
It’s also worth noting that former Flyers forward Andrei Kuzmenko exploded for 39 goals and 74 points in 2022-23, then shrunk down to just eight goals and 21 points in 43 games under Tocchet in 2023-24 before getting traded.
Kuzmenko, 29, has seemingly always played his best when arriving in a new environment for the first time, but we can deduce that the Russian sniper is nowhere near the player he was pre-Tocchet.
How long the novelty lasts for the Flyers remain to be seen, but the new bench boss has historically never succeeded with offensive talents over a sustained period of time, only in parts.
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The rift between Pettersson and Miller reached a point where it became unmanageable, and Clayton Keller’s best years with Arizona (and now Utah) came post-Tocchet.
Something can be said about Trevor Zegras enjoying the best hockey of his career for the Flyers, too, but beware of catering to or fixating on one player on the 23-man roster.
