Highly touted prospect Matvei Michkov has another two more years remaining on his KHL contract.

Do the Philadelphia Flyers have another Cutter Gauthier-type problem on their hands?

It's far too early to say. But months after being forced to trade their fifth-overall pick from 2022, the team is still unsure if Matvei Michkov, who was selected seventh overall in 2023, will ever leave Russia to play in the NHL.

In an interview with French-language podcast La Poche Bleue, GM Daniel Briere said the Flyers, "hope very, very much that (Michkov) will show up at some point." 

When that will happen is anyone's guess.

Michkov's contract with Saint-Petersburg in the KHL does not expire until 2025-26. But with a war still going on and international relations between the U.S. and Russia not exactly ideal at the moment, Briere said the Flyers haven't been in contact with the top-end prospect.

Could this be another scenario where Philadelphia essentially loses its top draft pick?

"It's scary sometimes hearing that after Cutter Gauthier," Briere said in French. "Listen, we loved his energy when he came to see us we drafted him. We talked to him a little when he was drafted in Nashville, but since then there has been no contact. We can't really talk to him. He belongs to Saint Petersburg in the KHL. 

"We watch him play a bit like everyone else. We watch the highlights, we watch these games. It's really exciting to know that we have a prospect like that on our team, but we don't know if we are ever going to see him."

This was always the risk with drafting Michkov. This remains the risk with drafting all Russians.

The Flyers, of course, knew this. Had Michkov been born in North America, he might have challenged Connor Bedard as the No. 1 overall pick. Instead, team after team passed on a player who some called the mini-Ovechkin for his ability to score with ease.

Eventually, the Flyers took a chance on Michkov with the seventh-overall pick. At best, they might have got the steal of the draft. And with a team-leading 19 goals and 41 points in 47 games this season while on loan with Sochi HC, he very well could be. 

But if he doesn't come over to North America, Philadelphia may have wasted yet another pick on a player who never puts on the Orange and Black.

The situation is different, but it wasn't that long ago when the Flyers were looking at a future that included Gauthier and Michkov up front. But when it became apparent that Gauthier had no intention on signing an entry-level contract with the Flyers, the team had no choice but to trade the highly touted forward prospect to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for Jamie Drysdale.

Again, there's no indication that Michkov won't come over. It's just that if he does come over, it won't be anytime soon.

For Briere, it is yet another reminder that the Flyers might want to play it safe when picking at this year's draft.

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