HIGHLIGHTS
- Matvei Michkov fined $2,000 for embellishment, his second citation of the season after a December warning
- The fine is basically a rounding error on his salary. The referee reputation is the real issue
- Full breakdown of the escalation scale and what this means for his sophomore season below
Matvei Michkov has been fined $2,000 for embellishment. It is the second citation of his NHL career and will barely register on his bank statement.
The NHL announced the fine Tuesday for an incident at 17:24 of the second period in Philadelphia’s March 24 game against Columbus. Michkov went down on a cross-check from Dante Fabbro, and both players drew offsetting minors. League hockey ops reviewed it afterward and decided the fall was more theatrical than the contact warranted.
Watch the sequence from the March 24 game below:
The fine goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund. On a base salary of around $894,000, $2,000 comes out to about 0.2 percent of his annual pay. The number is basically ceremonial.
What isn’t ceremonial is the escalation chart that now hangs over him. His first embellishment citation in December came as a warning. This one costs $2,000. A third offense costs $3,000. A fourth is $4,000. A fifth hits both Michkov and his head coach, with the coaching fine starting at $2,000 and climbing from there. Once a coach starts getting fined because of you, the conversation changes pretty quickly.
The less obvious consequence is what it does to how referees see him. Once you pick up this kind of citation, you develop a reputation. Players who dive on a regular basis tend to find that their penalty draws start to dry up, and the legitimately dirty plays against them stop getting called. That kind of reputation is hard to shake.
Michkov is 21 years old and in the middle of a sophomore slump after joining a Flyers team that has shuffled him around the lineup. He put up 26 goals and 63 points in his rookie year. He sits at 17 goals and 43 points this season in 75 games. The talent is obvious every time you watch him. The discipline piece is still a work in progress. This is part of that.
Philadelphia is 39-26-12 with 90 points and sitting in third place in the Metropolitan Division. There are stakes every night right now. Michkov’s discipline issues are the last thing a team in this position wants to be dealing with. The fine is a footnote. The pattern it represents is the part worth watching.
