Note: I’m not hating on Michkov in any way I’m just saying that he shouldn’t be a target by Chicago early on.

Matevi Michkov: No one in existence denies his talent he’s an absolute Russian prodigy, however another thing that we can agree on is that he has one major issue and it has nothing to do with his game. His KHL contract, without it he has a better chance of going top 2 depending on team need but this is not why I don’t want Chicago to draft him.

So starting off look at the Chicago Blackhawks a team who is beginning a pretty long rebuild, there is almost no talent on this team (minus a couple guys) however there are two main forward prospects on this team that are building blocks of the future. Lukas Reichel and Frank Nazar. Now you may be asking why I mentioned these two in a post about Michkov, there is a reason for this and it’s the main reason why I want us to avoid him early. There’s literally no franchise centre, they’re all wingers and management at Chicago seems to believe that they will be long term pieces. So the number one thing we should prioritize is finding our next franchise centre. Now I should add that we wouldn’t be in this dilemma if we were to get a top two pick as Bedard and Fantilli seem to be the clear top two but currently Chicago has only the 3rd highest odds at the first overall pick and that’s where the debate between Michkov and another top centre prospect comes in, that prospect is Leo Carlsson.

I would definitely say Michkov is the more talented of the two but Carlsson is also insanely gifted and plays the preferable position to me so that’s where I lean to the slightly less talented player but fills a massive need for us and unless you really think Colton Dach will be that franchise guy (which I think he will just be the 2C at his peak) there really is no realistic upside to picking Michkov.

-IconicHawk, March 28th 2023

I mean, we don't have to find our franchise center in this draft. Lukas Reichel has been playing center and looks pretty alright there. Assuming we're going to be this bad again the next couple years, we're looking at Celebrini, a guy who outpaced Fantilli in the USHL this year as a potential franchise center in next years draft and Michael Misa, the next CHL center prodigy in the 2025 draft. I think if you ask me 2 months ago i tell you pick Carlsson and dont think twice. But Michkov is doing crazy **** in the 2nd best league in the world. Like you said. Its gonna be a long rebuild. Waiting until his contract is up is essentially what we're going to be doing with Nazar and Rinzel anyway. I dont think this front office is scared of waiting a couple years if the talent is high end, and in this case, I think you dont pass up on the talent that is Michkov just because we dont want to wait or because he's not a center.

I’d rather move Reichel back to the wing because that’s his natural position so he can play with a true centre, as for Nazar and Rinzel, I presume they’ll stay in juniors maybe will be on Rockford and I’d rather get a centre done as soon as we can because like I said, that’s our top top priority I don’t care how good Michkov is, he doesn’t fit a team need winger is like the 3rd or probably 4th biggest issue on the team