{"id":129356,"date":"2025-09-03T09:19:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T09:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/129356\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T09:19:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T09:19:08","slug":"flyers-matvei-michkov-porter-martone-crack-nhls-top-u23-players-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/129356\/","title":{"rendered":"Flyers’ Matvei Michkov, Porter Martone crack NHL’s top U23 players list"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Flyers have been busy bees over the last few drafts, as future-focused trades netted the team a slew of draft picks, and the team added 26 players to its prospect pool<\/a> over three years via the draft.<\/p>\n

The result has been a much-improved and much deeper group of prospects headlined by Matvei Michkov, the team\u2019s top pick in 2023, and Porter Martone, who was selected sixth overall<\/a> in June. <\/p>\n

Others have taken notice, with The Athletic\u2019s Corey Pronman ranking the Flyers No. 7 in its annual NHL pipeline rankings. On Tuesday, Pronman released his player rankings, listing his top 173 NHL players and prospects and tiering them into six groups.<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Flyers come in at to No. 7 in The Athletic\u2019s NHL pipeline rankings<\/a><\/p>\n

Eight Flyers made the cut, with Michkov (No. 6) and Martone (No. 16) finishing in the top 20. Michkov, who led all NHL rookies<\/a> with 26 goals last season and tied with San Jose\u2019s Macklin Celebrini for second among first-year players with 63 points, was one of eight players listed in Pronman\u2019s second grouping, which he labeled the \u201cNHL All-Star\u201d tier. Celebrini and Chicago\u2019s Connor Bedard were the only players in Pronman\u2019s \u201cElite NHL Player\u201d tier.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s probably the one guy that I\u2019ve played with in my career that wants to be the best player in the NHL,\u201d Flyers winger Travis Konecny said of Michkov after his rookie season. \u201cHe believes that he can be, and you can\u2019t teach that. That\u2019s just something that he wants and he believes in, and that\u2019s a powerful thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martone, who will play at Michigan State this season after lighting up the Ontario Hockey League last season with Brampton, slotted into Pronman\u2019s third tier: \u201cBubble NHL All-Star and top of the lineup player.\u201d The power forward is one of just three 2025 draft picks in that tier, alongside Michael Misa and Caleb Desnoyers, with top pick Matthew Schaefer the only player in the second tier.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the pace of his game is going to have to pick up, but you see the hands, the vision, the ability to make plays [that] very few guys, even on our big team, can make,\u201d Flyers assistant GM Brent Flahr said of Martone\u2019s ability. <\/p>\n

The next Flyer on the list is 2025 first-rounder Jack Nesbitt (No. 61), whom the team took at pick No. 12 after trading up in a deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins. The towering 6-foot-5 center will return to the OHL with Windsor this season after averaging a point per game for the Spitfires last year as an 18-year-old. He lands in Tier 5, which Pronman projects as \u201cbubble top and middle of the lineup players.\u201d <\/p>\n

Defenseman Oliver Bonk comes in just two picks later at No. 63. Bonk, whose ceiling as a prospect has been subject to much debate, is expected to compete for an NHL job this fall but will likely start in the minors with Lehigh Valley. Twenty-year-old Russian goaltender Egor Zavragin (No. 74) also landed in this tier with Nesbitt and Bonk after a standout season in the Kontinental Hockey League with SKA St. Petersburg. <\/p>\n

Rounding out the list are centers Jett Luchanko (No. 152) and Jack Berglund (No. 153), the team\u2019s top picks in the 2024 draft, and right winger Shane Vansaghi (No. 167), a second-round pick in this June\u2019s draft. <\/p>\n

Luchanko, who just turned 19<\/a>, got a taste of the NHL with four games last season after being selected 13th overall and will again compete for a job with the Flyers in training camp. Another polarizing prospect when it comes to upside, Luchanko\u2019s ranking is surprisingly low when you consider the total picture of his age, skating ability, and the fact that he made the Flyers in his draft year. The Flyers remain much higher on the young centerman\u2019s prospects.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s very smart. His hockey IQ, his playmaking ability, I think, is through the roof,\u201d Riley Armstrong, the Flyers\u2019 director of player development, told The Inquirer<\/a> last month regarding Luchanko. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou see him skating, he like floats on the ice \u2014 two or three strides and he\u2019s at max speed. I think the one thing that\u2019s going to separate him is once he finds that scoring touch and getting a few different habits of where to shoot the puck or how to beat an NHL goalie, I think that\u2019s going to take his game to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Flyers prospects Jack Berglund, Heikki Ruohonen shine at World Junior Summer Showcase<\/a><\/p>\n

Berglund, who impressed at this summer\u2019s World Junior Summer Showcase in Minnesota, will play again with F\u00e4rjestad BK of the Swedish Hockey League, while the bruising Vansaghi, a sophomore, will team up with Martone at Michigan State.<\/p>\n

So how did the Flyers\u2019 crop of prospects on Pronman\u2019s list match up leaguewide?<\/p>\n

Only six teams had more than the Flyers\u2019 eight prospects on the list, with Chicago and San Jose tying with a joint-best 11 players. Breaking it down further, the Flyers are one of only four teams \u2014 Anaheim, Montreal, and San Jose are the others \u2014 to have a top-10 prospect and two prospects ranked in the top 20. <\/p>\n

At No. 6 overall, Michkov ranked behind only Celebrini, Bedard, Anaheim center Leo Carlsson, center Adam Fantilli of the Columbus Blue Jackets, and New Jersey Devils defenseman Luke Hughes. Juraj Slafkovsk\u00fd (Montreal), Zeev Buium (Minnesota), Matthew Schaefer (New York Islanders), and Ivan Demidov (Montreal) rounded out Pronman\u2019s top 10. Former Flyer Cutter Gauthier landed at No. 56 on this list.<\/p>\n

Breakaways<\/p>\n

Flyers hockey operations adviser Ian Laperri\u00e8re will leave his post with the organization to take a pro scouting job with the New York Islanders, a source confirmed to The Inquirer. Laperri\u00e8re, 51, served as head coach of Lehigh Valley the past four seasons, compiling a 134-120-38 overall record and guiding the American Hockey League club to the postseason three times. The former Flyer was not retained as head coach and shifted by the organization into an adviser role in May. He previous told The Inquirer he was open to coaching again if the opportunity arose. <\/p>\n

Staff writer Jackie Spiegel contributed to this article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Flyers have been busy bees over the last few drafts, as future-focused trades netted the team a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,82087,99],"class_list":["post-129356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-prospsect-rankings-athletic-michkov-martone-luchanko-bonk-zavragin","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}