Trade Rumours ESCALATING... BLOCKBUSTER trade INCOMING

November 9th, Vancouver. The Flyers win 3-1 and on the bench is Matvei Michkov and Nick Seeler screaming at each other. A water ball gets tossed. The next night, ESPN's Kevin Weeks reports that Michkov will likely want a new start elsewhere. He's 21, he leads Philadelphia with 10 goals, and his contract is only $950,000 for one more season. If he leaves, where is the best fit for Matvei Michkov? Two teams keep coming up in my mind, the Calgary Flames and the Montreal Canadiens. One of them teams has his friend, Ivan Demidov, and the other has a relationship with trading with Philadelphia. Here is what is confirmed. Weeks said that he has heard from league sources that Michkov wants out. The Flyers say they never heard it from Michkov yet. A team source told Kevin Kurz that Michkov has not requested a trade. Emily Kaplan was told he has not formally requested one either. The Flyers are caught off guard with this per Sam Cacciardi, and I can't find a quote from Michkov, his agent, or Danny Brière on him asking out, but that's the rumors that are flying around the league right now. But look at the team around him. The Flyers are 5-10-5 with 15 points, 6 in the Metro. Mishkov has 10 of their goals on 29 shots. That's 34.5% shooting percentage. He plays 15-54 a game with 3-14 of that on the power play. On November 11th at Edmonton, the Flyers had him on the third line. He's also a minus 11, which tells you how the games have gone when he is on the ice. The team's top scorer is on the third line and they won't move him up, so it makes sense to why this player would want out, because he'd get a better opportunity somewhere else to get more ice time. He's on a one-year, $950,000 deal, then he's a restricted free agent. The decision lands this summer either way. Does the smoke go back further than Monday? It does. In October of 2025, he sat out third period several times under Rick Tocchet, and he was averaging 14.50 a game early that season. By mid-December, he was ninth among Flyers, forwards, and ice time at 14:40 a game. Michkov is going nowhere, as what GM Danny Brière said in February. On May 14th, he went further. Quote, Matvei, we see him being a part of the picture for years to come. That hasn't changed. That was the answer after a season that had a healthy scratch in it. In the playoffs against Pittsburgh, he averaged 10 minutes and 5 seconds through four games, then sat out game five. The offseason was going to be dominated by the Mishkov situation, Elliot Friedman wrote on April 29th, and teams would call. Fast forward to October 15th, a video claims he was traded within a day and names the Oilers. Flyers sources call it laughable and bogus. Six days later, a hockey news piece writes about whispers. He has six goals and one assist through 11 games. On October 26th, he asked about a celebration. He said, quote, right now, delete Instagram, just focus on hockey. The next day on his hot start, quote, goals is good, but first team, second myself. Read those two quotes again because he is not complaining. He is saying the team first while the team loses. Through November 1st, he had 10 of the Flyers' 30 goals. That is 33.3%, the highest share in the NHL. Then Seeler, he already criticized individualistic play on the roster in public. Who he was talking about has not been said and nobody has confirmed it. That's a lot of smoke for a team that says they have no plans on moving this player, and if it turns into a trade, who calls? Before either team calls, it has to price one thing. How much of this is a real season? Through 181 NHL games, he has 56 goals and 128 points. In his rookie year, he scored 26 goals and 199 shots, 13.1%. Last season, it was 20 goals and 163, 12.3%. This season, it's 10 goals and 29 shots, 34.5%. His career rate across 391 shots is 14.3%. At his career rate, 29 shots is about 4 goals, not 10. The shots are also down. He took 2.5 a game as a rookie to a last season and 1.5 this season. So he is getting fewer looks and converting on them. That doesn't last, and a team trading him should know that. But if a team that buys him gives him more opportunity, the goals will come. The power play is different. 5 of his 10 goals this season came there after 8 of 26 as a rookie and 4 of 20 last season. That's the case for a team that gives him the top unit, and Montreal and Calgary both have an open seat. Not many names are attached to this player yet, but I think the best fit personally is Montreal and Calgary. On the Flyers' side, they have about $13.0 million in cap space, so nobody is forcing a salary dump. Inside the division, Stefan Rosner doesn't see a trade, but he expects Islanders GM Matthew Barnaby to inquire. The Blackhawks come up in opinion pieces from the Hockey News and Bleacher Report. The Oilers' rumor was the one that got shot down. So Montreal and Calgary are both fits, not rumors. I like both for different reasons. Start with the one that has a friend. Montreal is 11-3-4, that's 26 points and second in the Atlantic. They have a plus-7 goal difference through 18 games, so this is a team that wins without him. Last season, Demidov had 19 goals and 43 assists in 82 games. Michkov had 20 goals and 31 assists in 81. And they talk all the time. Michkov has said that Demidov has what it takes to become a superstar. Demidov averages .240 on the power play in his two games and Michkov averages .314. Doc is at 38 seconds. The catch is Demidov himself. He has played two games this season with one goal and one assist after a walking boot in October. Demidov signed an eight-year, $73.2 million extension last season. That's a $9.15 million cap hit that starts in 27-28 and Michkov's next deal has to fit around it. The trade machine version is Michkov for Kirby Doc, David Reinbacher, and a 2027 first-round pick. Nobody has reported that. It's just the math. Doc is on a one-year $3.6 million deal and plays 11-0-3 a game. Montreal took Reinbacher fifth overall in 2023. Doc has played 16 of Montreal's 18 games, so he is in the lineup most nights. That year, Michkov determined to end up in Philadelphia. Friedman reported now the defense in Montreal took fifth. Is the piece going the other way? Cap is the squeeze. The planner shows $1.9 million in space for Montreal, so Doc's $3.6 million going out is what makes it work. So Philadelphia gets an expiring player here in Kirby Doc. They get a top-five pick and a first-round pick behind that that they can make work and go out and make another deal happen. Montreal gets a score that fit on their wings. Montreal is a contending team, so this move would really help them. Calgary, on the other side, is the opposite, and Philadelphia already knows that front office pretty well. Calgary is 8-9-1, that's 17 points and are 5th in the Pacific Division. On November 8th, they beat the Flyers 4-3 in overtime. The history is the Flyers' own doing. On January 31st, 2025, they sent Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee to Calgary for Andre Kuzmenko, Jacob Peltier, and a 2025 second-round pick in 2028's 7th. Farabee has 7 goals and 10 assists in 18 games this season. Frost has 4 goals, 8 assists in 18. Firby averages 19-0-1 a game, Frost is 15-10, Philadelphia gave them up, and they play top 6 minutes in Calgary. Calgary also has about 15.1 million in cap space, the most of the three teams. Gritton, Frost, and Firby each play about 2-24-2-25 a game on the power play, and Miedschkov will be the first flame to pass three minutes. Some of that is dead weight, Jonathan Huberdeau is on injured reserve at 10.5 million a year through 2030-31 with a no movement clause. Even with that, Frost and Farabee are on $4.375 million and $5 million, so the roster has room to add a score. The trade machine version here is Miedschkov for Zary, Gridden, and a 2027 second-round pick. Same thing, nobody has reported. Gridden has five goals and six assists in 18 games, averaging 15.55 a night, and Zary has played two games this season, now with the Wranglers in the AHL. Like I said, Zari is listed as he's on the minor roster right now with the Calgary Wranglers, so giving up him wouldn't really hurt Calgary's roster right now, but he is a good prospect piece to add to this with Gridden. So in this deal, Calgary will be sending back another Matt Ve, Matt Ve Gridden, who has been a great player for them this season and a great prospect to send back to Philly to go out and get Michkov here. Calgary would be paying in young players, and a second here, that's what a rebuild has to spend. And that's the real risk here, a rebuilding team will have to know if Michkov would sign an extension with this team. Flip it around though, and a 21-year-old with 10 goals and a one-year deal, every big game makes his contract cost more. Let's put those two offers side-by-side, and Philadelphia has a real choice here. Montreal's is Doc Reinbach around a first, Calgary's is Zari Gridden and a second. Zari has signed two years at $3.775 million, so Philadelphia would have hold his rights through 2028. Doc is a one-year rent. Gridden is playing $15.55 a game right now. Doc is playing $11.03. Last season, Demidov put up 62 points to Michkov's 51, a gap of 11, even though Michkov scored one more goal. Frost and Farabee have 29 points in 18 games between them this season. Philadelphia is 5-10-5 without them. On the ice, Calgary's package plays more. On draft capital, Montreal's is worth more. A team that's 5, 10, and 5 has to decide if they want a player that helps them now or a first that helps them in the future. Which offer are you taking? Let me know down below in the comments if it's Montreal or Calgary. I'd love to hear from you guys. So here's the call, Montreal or Calgary, and here's the reason. Montreal, obviously they have a friend there in Ivan Demidov, two close guys would make some great chemistry on the ice, and they're a contender, and getting a scorer like Michkov would really help them going forward. For Calgary, I think Michkov really speeds up the rebuild, and getting a scorer like this on their team, I think would help them win a lot more games in the Pacific, which is kind of a division where the third spot is kind of up in the air right now, so I think I like this trade more for Calgary than I do Montreal. Now, what to watch going next, if he actually requests a trade formally from Philly, and if that happens, these talks are going to ramp up quickly.