Ahead of the NHL season, it's time to make some bold predictions for what the next several months are going to involve. One now features a shocking blockbuster Auston Matthews trade to the Philadelphia Flyers, and a certain Russian player coming back.
Over at Daily Faceoff, Matt Larkin decided to pull out 25 bold predictions ahead of the season. It was, naturally, a tiered list going from the more tame predictions to the hot-and-spicy versions of some far-out threats that would make the entire hockey world shake for months. The Toronto Maple Leafs were of course the main character in the latter.
Auston Matthews to the Flyers? One guy wants it to happen
In the "Piping-Hot Takes" tier that existed just before the Stanley Cup prediction, Larkin decided to go all out with a big home run swing. He predicted that the Maple Leafs are going to miss the playoffs yet again and Matthews wants out. It's just an easy thing to imagine happening and that's the sad part of it. More specifically, he predicted that during the week of the 2027 NHL Draft (which is rumoured to be in Philadelphia), he gets dealt to the Flyers.
The Flyers, as we all know, are desperately looking for a No. 1 center. They tried with the Leo Carlsson offer sheet but failed. And now, according to Larkin, they're going to swing big and land Matthews and most likely sign him to an extension as well.
That would break our hearts but maybe it depends on who is the return and if the Leafs can still remain somewhat competitive in this post-Matthews era. As part of the prediction, it will be young Russian winger Matvei Michkov as the main trade chip back.
"A fitter Michkov should be faster and more dangerous as a scorer, but he’ll remain prone to bouts of inconsistency, which will continue to draw Tocchet’s ire," Larkin wrote. "The Leo Carlsson offer sheet showed that Flyers GM Danny Briere is willing to spend massive money on a superstar center, and Matthews would accelerate the team’s timeline significantly. Meanwhile, the Leafs, who began fostering a Russian contingent with Marchenko and Sergei Bobrovsky, would buy low on a high-ceilinged talent while netting some other useful draft-pick capital."
It would be nice to form our own Russian Five in Toronto, but Michkov is certainly an unproven talent at this point and it would feel wild for him to be the centerpiece in a trade. He has the potential to be great, but there are still signs of him not getting there. Even if he's a 70-point winger at 22 years old, that certainly doesn't replace Matthews in any shape or form. The Leafs would still be on the lookout for a center and with John Tavares aging out of the NHL, the future down the middle doesn't look all that great.
We don't even want to think about this happening. It's a nightmare situation for the Leafs to begin with, and now they're dealing him to an up-and-coming team and getting a player who might be a solid first-line winger, but not really the gamechanger that Matthews was even as a rookie.
Let's just hope he is never ever traded and is a Toronto Maple Leaf for the rest of his life.
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