Roman Rotenberg: “Matvey Michkov cannot be a third or fourth line attacker. He must make the difference.”

SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg told why striker Matvey Michkov was loaned out to Sochi again.

On Monday, SKA loaned its 18-year-old striker.

— Matvey and I are in very good contact, we communicate constantly. We discussed the current situation with him. It is clear that Matvey is a first or second line, first or second majority player. He needs to play a lot to develop, spending 20 minutes per game on the ice. And now there is a good opportunity to return on loan to Sochi, where Michkov knows all the guys and knows the requirements of the technical staff.

We see that Sochi plays modern hockey. We will contact Matvey. It’s clear there’s no point in him playing in the VHL. And you can’t marinate it on the bench.

We have healthy and very serious competition at SKA. But Matvey cannot be a third or fourth line player. He must be the striker who makes the difference.

And he must develop so that we get a ready-made hockey player for SKA and the Russian national team. And for that, he has to play a lot.

— Did Mishkov immediately agree to the trip to Sochi?

— We discussed all the details, Matvey spoke with Sochi head coach Dmitry Kokorev. He immediately agreed, and it was our joint decision.

— When is Mishkov leaving for a new club?

“His documents are being processed and he will leave tomorrow.” I think he will arrive in Cherepovets, where Sochi plays on Wednesday. Maybe even Matvey will take to the ice,” Rotenberg said for .

Last season, Michkov already played on loan for Sochi. In total, the hockey player has 20 points (9 goals + 11 assists) in 27 KHL matches for the Sochi club.

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