Since Matvei Michkov ended the season a healthy scratch, he'll be all the talk this offseason, and that is going to open up some sore wounds for Philadelphia Flyers fans.
This conversation has, of course, resurfaced again, even after things went mostly well under John Tortorella, and later Brad Shaw, last season.
The Flyers fanbase has been divided into two splinter cells: one that thinks head coach Rick Tocchet is right to bench an underperforming, out-of-shape Michkov, and one that thinks the Flyers botched this whole operation and gave the player little opportunity to perform in a meaningful role.
In reality, both sides are, to an extent, right in both cases.
NHL insider Elliotte Friedman, who has no skin in this game, took to his "32 Thoughts" podcast to dish on Michkov and the Flyers, expertly playing both sides and making sense of it all.
He also indirectly cautioned the Flyers against trading Michkov, even invoking the despised Cutter Gauthier as an example of why it just can't happen again.
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"Look what happened with Cutter Gauthier. . . just look at Gauthier's natural gifts. It's really hard to let two players walk like that in a short period of time," Friedman said.
"Gauthier was a really good pick by Philadelphia that didn't work out. And Michkov, I still say, was a really good pick by the Flyers. I just don't think you can give up that easily. If I'm [Danny Briere], I'm saying 'We have to find a way to make this better.' . . . You would have to show me a trade that really made sense for me to do this."
The Flyers obviously need a good center, and a young one, at that, but no team with a good center at Michkov's age is going to pony one up for him after this debacle.
And for the Flyers, taking a draft pick and/or other futures for Michkov from a team like the San Jose Sharks or Chicago Blackhawks doesn't make sense.
They just made the playoffs, and using a pick on a player who could be three years away from being a contributor at the expense of a back-to-back 20-goal, 50-point player strays from that progress.
"I would say to Tocchet, 'You can't find guys like this.' If we're going to move on from him, we better be sure. Better be sure, that there is absolutely no chance it works out here for him," Friedman continued.
"I would also say to Michkov, 'I am not going to trade you.' So, your best answer, whatever you're not delivering, you have to change that, too."
Some things we can safely assume Michkov has not delivered, at least for Tocchet, is a consistent forechecking presence and more frequent skating. It's not Michkov's style, especially offensively, but that is what the coach wants.
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At the same time, this is now two seasons and counting of the Flyers trying to pivot Michkov off the things that made him the seventh pick three years ago. The creativity, the risk-taking, opportunism, offensive puck touches.
Friedman and co-host Kyle Bukauskas went on to discuss the training camp out-of-shape stuff that has been beaten like a dead horse, and yeah, the player has to work on that. Everyone can benefit from improved conditioning and added speed.
We saw what Bobby Brink did over the last few seasons, and it turned him from a bubble player to an important one.
Michkov is already important, so the next step is… elite?
At the end of the day, there are a lot of moving parts here, and there doesn't appear to be any motivation from either side for a Michkov trade.
Like Friedman says, get everyone together and figure it out, because nobody's going anywhere after the success the Flyers had as a team this season.
And Friedman's opinion matters. He's plugged in with front offices, agents, and all kinds of staffers, so he knows how the league works, why it works, and how the situation is viewed.
The Flyers have taken a beating from the public all season long over the Michkov stuff, and the perpetuated noise around them is asking them to quash it for good.
