Matvei Michkov has officially signed his entry-level contract and is expected to join the Philadelphia Flyers for the 2024-25 season—a move that wasn’t supposed to happen for two more years. Even though Michkov’s arrival is largely a positive occurrence, some fans have not been completely relishing in the imminent arrival of the “Mad Russian.”

There’s been some concern that Flyers head coach John Tortorella won’t have the right coaching style to properly guide an already extremely talented Michkov through his early tenure in Philadelphia. A notoriously demanding coach with high expectations and little tolerance for players who don’t meet them, on paper, it sounds like there could be a cataclysmic clash of egos between the two. But Michkov’s development in the NHL won’t suffer because of it.

For one thing, Flyers GM Danny Briere acknowledged the fact that, despite his abilities on the ice, Michkov will need time to adjust to his new home, and that he’ll have to earn his spot in the lineup like any other player.

Briere also explicitly stated that he has full trust in Tortorella to “teach [Michkov] the right way…be hard, be fair.”

With the front office having a very specific rebuild plan in place, it’s pretty much a guarantee that they wouldn’t have risked it if they didn’t believe that Tortorella was a good coaching fit for their most exciting prospect.

Plus, Michkov may only be 19 years old, but he’s already dealt with his fair share of difficult coaches during his time in the KHL. He struggled to get ice time with SKA St. Petersburg during the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons, eventually getting loaned out to HK Sochi for a more consistent roster spot.

This wouldn’t be news if Michkov hadn’t been putting up mind-boggling performances in that timeframe. He was playing with U20 teams at 17. He was up there with the best professional players in Europe in his draft year. Roman Rotenberg didn’t give Michkov anywhere close to a fair shot to show what he could do, and Michkov still thrived.

Tortorella is a tough coach, to put it mildly, but he’s not an unfair one. He knows what Michkov can do, he knows that he most likely will need a period to learn and adjust to the Flyers, and he knows that the front office’s expectations are for long-term success rather than immediate gratification. They’re not putting pressure on Tortorella’s shoulders to extract all of the greatness out of the young forward over the course of one or two seasons.

One also has to consider the fact that the Flyers are not a single-parent household. It won’t just be Tortorella tasked with raising Michkov as a Flyer—the entire locker room will be involved in helping him live up to his full potential. There are plenty of young guys already on the team to be there for him, and more prospects joining soon. Veteran players like Erik Johnson have already taken on a mentor role to help make his transition easier. So even if there are some conflicts between the two, Michkov will still have plenty of support around him.

You have to imagine that they’re both going into this season with a clear understanding of how the other operates, and they’ll find a way to make it work. At the end of the day, there will be road bumps—which nobody in the NHL is immune to—and it won’t be the end of the world because no matter what differences Tortorella and Michkov may have, they both share the goal of wanting to bring as much success as possible to the Flyers.