The Philadelphia Flyers will face the Vancouver Canucks on Friday, October 11, 2024 (10/11/24) at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia.

How to watch: Fans can watch the game with a free trial on fuboTV or with a subscription on ESPN+.

Here’s what you need to know:

What: NHL regular season

WHO: Vancouver Canucks vs. Philadelphia Flyers

When: Oct 11, 2024 (10/11/24)

Time: 10 p.m. ET

Where: Rogers Arena

TV: NBC Sports Philadelphia

Station finder: Verizon Fios, AT&T U-Verse, Comcast Xfinity, Spectrum/Charter, Optimum/Altice,Cox, DIRECTV, Court, Hulu, fuboTV, loop.

Live stream: fuboTV, ESPN+

Here’s a recent AP NHL story

Fears about bringing Matvei Michkov from Russia, coupled with a lack of reliable scouting, led to the talented winger being left out of the 2023 NHL Draft. The rebuilding Philadelphia Flyers took him with the seventh pick and were willing to be patient and wait for Michkov to play out the final three seasons of his KHL contract.

The Flyers brought Michkov to North America two years ahead of schedule, and he could make his debut in the world’s top hockey league on Friday. He could be the best young prospect from Russia since Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin in 2005.

The 19-year-old is just part of the league’s recent influx of Russian talent, despite the war in Ukraine and the longtime lack of an international transfer agreement between the NHL and KHL.

“It’s good that guys aren’t afraid to try it here, a year of hockey, without parents, without friends,” said 21-year-old Winnipeg Jets prospect Nikita Chibrikov at the NHLPA Rookie Showcase last month. “It’s really hard. When you come to another country it feels like a different world to us. Some people don’t know the language. It feels like you’re trying to live a different life.”

Michkov was the second of 21 players selected from a Russian league in 2023, and NHL teams took 24 in the final draft last summer. Ivan Miroshnichenko of Washington was the first of 20 drafts from 1922, the first draft since Russia invaded Ukraine.

Since then, the International Ice Hockey Federation has banned Russia and its close ally Belarus from participating in its tournaments, including the World Junior Championships for players under 20 and the U18 World Cup, which serve as key scouting opportunities. The NHL has also cut ties with Russia since the war began, and teams have fewer scouts checking out the KHL and other leagues there because of travel bans and security concerns.

Steven Warshaw, a marketing manager who worked for the Pittsburgh Penguins in Moscow in the 1990s when they invested in a hockey club there after the collapse of the Soviet Union, estimates that there is 90% less scouting in Russia than before the war. That has tarnished player valuation and he also said extra money would be spent to keep the best domestic players in Russia.

“They keep a lot of players that would normally come here,” Warshaw said. “Nobody wants to end up in Allentown and make money (less than the league minimum). They would rather be in St. Petersburg, making hundreds of thousands of dollars and being stars, speaking their own language, eating their own food and feeling good.”

That’s why Chibrikov, a 2021 second-rounder who made his NHL debut last season, is happy that his compatriots are taking advantage of the same opportunity he did. He spent much of last season in the American Hockey League with the Manitoba Moose, also based in Winnipeg.

“If you want to come here and try out the hockey skills you learned in Russia, this is the strongest league in the world,” he said. “You have to adapt here. So many guys are faster and guys take more time.”

While Michkov is heading straight to the NHL, Miroshnichenko split his time between the Capitals and the AHL Calder Cup champion Hershey Bears last season and could play again in the coming months. Another Philadelphia prospect, Belarusian goaltender Alexei Kolosov, could start in the minors with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in Allentown, Pennsylvania, but in the event of an injury he is the first player highly valued for the future of the franchise.

The Flyers acquired Michkov from Russia earlier than expected after waiting almost two full years longer for goaltender Ivan Fedotov, who signed an NHL contract in May 2022. Before coming to North America, Fedotov was taken by authorities to a military base in the Arctic Circle for a year of military service.

Fedotov played last season for CSKA Moscow – one of the two richly funded teams in the KHL alongside SKA Saint Petersburg – before his contract was abruptly terminated last spring. After the path was clear, he joined the Flyers and signed a contract extension.

“When people ask, ‘How did these guys get out?’ it’s about money,” Warshaw said. “It’s plain and simple.”

Through Chibrikov’s interpreter, Michkov said he was “very grateful to the GM and the organization” and “really excited to wear this uniform.” The presence of Fedotov and Egor Zamula should help him settle in Philadelphia, which he describes in English as “a “beautiful city”.

Zamula cried for most of his first months in North America in 2017 while playing junior hockey in Western Canada, and as the only Russian Flyers player last season, he wanted to talk to his television or a chair when he went home after games . He hopes to ease Mikkov’s adjustment, just as Ovechkin has done for Miroshnichenko and countless others over the years.

“Now it’s my turn because I understand how difficult this is and I’m trying to do my best to make him feel comfortable here,” Zamula said. “It’s definitely different for him, but he’ll be fine.”