RW Matvei Michkov - SKA-1946 St.Petersburg, MHL (2023 Draft)
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Artorius Horus T
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I think it's too early for all this talk about best ever and potential NHL Hall of famer it's like overhyping Shane Wright calling him a guaranteed NHL superstar after only his 4th OHL game. Yes there is promise but still a long way to go , this is just the beginning of the season, his first in the MHL.
kp61c
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Artorius Horus T
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I have a relative who grew 10 centimetres in his year when he turned 18.
So anything is possible, you never know when it comes to growth spurt.
It can happen for sure but not often. Since he's a late birthdate he may still have some more growth ahead for him I hope, but usually after age 16 people don't gain more than a couple inches ( around 5 cm ) tops. We'll see for Michkov.
Gusev isn't the worst player (especially at international tournaments), and Michkov is way better, than Gusev was at the same age.
He already reached his father’s height, so there should not be a lot potential in this area.
kp61c
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Actually I don’t remember, but Matvey told it during youtube stream with Sport-express before preseason started.
Barry Amsterdam
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Still, the fact of matter is, he outscored all the great Soviet/Russian stars of the present and past.
Artorius Horus T
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Exactly this.
No one has ever even gotten close to Michkov's numbers, this side of the ocean.
EXTRAS
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He wasn't "pretty close" to the NA deities one dares not critisize in NA. He was at the very least and easily on the same level. Actually better and that's where North Americans get their haert attacks
I mean you can say that, but when he played the NA game in the NHL he wasn't able to back up what ur saying. From age 31-36 he was quite good putting up 134 goals, 384 points in 420 games, while at the same age of 31-36 Mario was able to put up 127 goals, 351 points, in 246 games.
Lemeiux point/game (after cancer and a terrible back) = 1.43
Makarov point/game = .91
I get Makarov may have slowed down in his 30s moreso than lemeiux, but that's an extremely significant difference. North Americans would probably take the comparison more seriously if Makarov had been able to destroy the nhl for even one season.
Gretzky years 31-36 had a point/game of 1.31
They only played international tournaments together a few times, and gretzky/lemieux skunked makarov in most of those tournaments in points/game too.
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And as I said, let's wait at least until he destroys the MHL before going crazy and comparing him to the greats.
I still remember when Avtsin was called a mini-Ovechkin for his pre-draft numbers in a low league.
Different leagues. It was like Michkov played in tier 1, and that other kid played in tier 4 or 5. Say, if you score 4PPG in some beer league, will it mean you're better, than a PPG NHLer?
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WHAT points per game? In the NHL? LOL I don't care which North Amercians or anybody else will tell me about their precious NHL. Comparing Makarov's NHL numbers to anybody is absurd. Gretzky might have been a superstar in the soviet league, but I doubt he would score as much as soviet star players. Lemieux even less so. There are quite a few different hints to what kind of game soviet hockey was. Makarov's teammates in the NHL told the sory as they always kinda apologized to Makarov for not being able to play his style on his level. It's like giving Paganini a drum and then say that he wasn't as good a musician.
In international tournaments soviet teams dominated NHL teams, also those with Gretzky on them. On national teams Canada was closer(partially because of the Canada Cup setup to make Canada win), but both Gretzky an Lemieux were nothing special in those games, just the same level as soviet stars. The stats game is always a mistake too. Canadian HAD to rely on their few superstars more and the NHL game was revolving around superstars those days. This is the Panarin-Rangers situation. Clearly the best player on a worse team will get more points as every play goes through him. Soviet teams were completely different in mindset and talent level. The scoring was way more evenly distributed, as was icetime.
What I rely on is still my eye-test. Basically Lemieux and Gretzky were the only canadian players in the same tier as soviet stars. And soviet forwards would skate circles around canadian teams. Let's not forget the soviet D was a different story too. That is what evened things out. Fetisov was basically the only superstar defenceman to show.
To be fair Avtsin never recovered fully after an injury and that disrupted his career a lot.
When was that injury, after he flopped in the AHL? He was never going to be as good as the hype.
Not saying Michkov won't be good, but getting excited about accomplishments at that age often leads to disappointment. I should know, I was full on hype train for Mikko Kokkonen when he played a game in the Liiga at 15.
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From what I can see gretzky beat mak in points in all international tournaments in points quite handedly.
And when NHLers played the Russians in "rendezvous 87" where both players were involved the games were split 1-1 with gretzky getting 4 points (most amongst all players) and Makarov getting 1 point.
He can pass the eye test all he wants, but he has to produce. Gretzky wasnt the fastest, or strongest, or anything, but he just had the best "hockey sense" . If u saw someone like jagr or pavel you might think they were better than gretzky. Gretzky was just better, and obviously consistently put up the numbers to back it up everywhere he played.
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Those classic Canada v Soviet series during the Canada Cup really set the stage for the modern game. Even watching it now the speed and skill of those Soviet terms were obvious.
I’m fairly certain Gretzky and Lemieux would put up big numbers in the Soviet leagues, but you make a good point about Soviet line distributions. Those teams ran in 5 man units with 4 pairings of D to go with the 4 forward lines.
I think you’re correct about the D being the big difference Fetisov was really the only mainstay whose play consistently matched the Soviet forwards play. Canada always had the better D.
Your Makarov comparable or “best since” Makarov is interesting. Makarov was a fantastic player and like Michkov very good along the boards and Makarov had outstanding hockey IQ.
I always found Kharlamov to be the most skilled Soviet player but Michkov doesn’t have that same straight line speed that jumped out with Kharlamov. But the kid has lots of time to develop that, his agility is already outstanding.
Michkov is a very very good player to watch on film, and those numbers he’s putting up suggest he might be the highest regarded Russian prospect ever by the time his draft year hits.
There are a lot of u16 leagues, all of them are regional. Michkov played in the most competitive. If you want to find more realistic statistics you’d better look for it here: Russian Hockey
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