Philadelphia loves its teams, and its stars.
The Eagles have Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley, two of the NFL's best and on top of the world coming off a dominant Super Bowl run.
The Phillies have Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber, one of the faces of Major League Baseball and a slugger who can crush pitches into the seats at a record pace.
And the Sixers, they have Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid, a constantly ascending guard and a center who can be an unstoppable scorer so long as he's healthy.
Those three teams all have 'their guys.'
The Flyers? They have Matvei Michkov, who isn't quite at that level yet, but who the organization is hoping will be real soon.
Last summer, the team's prized prospect arrived over from Russia two years ahead of his expected schedule, and proceeded to capture attention immediately.
Fervent Flyers fans were tracking rumors constantly that Michkov's camp had negotiated an out from his KHL contract and would be on his way over, then were just as quickly waiting for his plane into North America, and swarming the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees for the first day of the team's rookie camp to get a glimpse of the teenager who, in many ways, was the face of the organization's future.
He was strong, he was fast, he was offensively creative. He was a superstar in the making, and although his rookie season in Philadelphia came with plenty of highs and lows, Michkov showed enough signs that he would live up to the billing and the lofty expectations that would come with it.
The now 20-year-old winger scored 26 goals and 63 points last season to not only lead the Flyers in scoring but the NHL's entire rookie class, too, and he did it all with an intensity and showmanship that pointed to him being made for the spotlight.
"He's a very excitable player to watch," Keith Jones, the Flyers' president of hockey operations, said of Michkov during a Wednesday press conference in Voorhees. "He embraces trying to be the best. It's an interesting thing to watch him operate. But we're really excited, obviously, that he's here."
Because he's capable of reaching a level of superstardom that no Flyer has in a long, long time.
- MORE FLYERS
- The Flyers are still preaching patience, but are shooting to be better this year
- Flyers thoughts: Rookie camp is here, and a new season is around the corner
- Matvei Michkov wants to be the best in the NHL, Flyers believe he will be
Claude Giroux was the face of the Flyers for the most of the past decade, but stood as such during arguably the franchise's most turbulent era, when attention and patience started to wane.
Before that, Jones recalled how the Flyers had Jeremy Roenick and then Peter Forsberg come through in the later stages of their careers, but how there hasn't quite been a player around to reach the same type of notoriety for the team as Eric Lindros and John LeClair did in the 90s – not in the salary cap era, that is, and definitely not with how the NHL is structured now.
"It was often the way that this team would go about continuing to keep fan interest," Jones reflected. "Would be adding a star player, maybe a former superstar player, that would keep people excited, you know, JR, when he showed up, Forsberg, when he came around. Obviously, you can't do that anymore. You have to internally develop your stars or get very fortunate that a free agent gets to free agency in this game, which is becoming more difficult."
So the Flyers are pushing their chips in on Michkov, recent sixth overall pick Porter Martone, too, once he gets here from college at Michigan State.
Because it's been a long time since the Flyers had a true superstar, 'their guy.'
And they're hoping that, soon enough, they'll have a couple of them, for a long, long time to come.
"To have somebody like Matvei to continue to push and hopefully become one of those superstar talents is certainly exciting for us," Jones said. "Martone has some of those similarities as well. So yeah, the more of those players you have, the more interest that there is.
"Stars do sell in Philadelphia."
SIGN UP HERE to receive the PhillyVoice Sports newsletter
Follow Nick on Twitter: @itssnick
Follow Nick on Bluesky: @itssnick
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports