With the Philadelphia Flyers slumping to the tune of a 6-game bender, changes are allegedly afoot in an attempt to shake off the bad juju that’s got them sitting with a 1-5-1 record and zero regulation victories.
John Tortorella seems to be the one who really struck his foot in the door for Jett Luchanko to start the season with the Flyers. He has had nothing but complimentary things to say about the 18-year-old but he was also keeping him on his toes with healthy scratches in an attempt to not rush his development – similar to the NBA’s load management protocol.
Luchanko hadn’t seen the ice in the last two games and the Flyers will be sending him back to his junior team in the Guelph Storm.
Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli initially reported that if Tortorella did not intend to give him any run with the upcoming back-to-back slate this weekend, it was likely to happen.
This was always the likeliest of situations considering the Flyers were probably not going to burn the first year of his entry-level contract, but he had impressed so much from the rookie camp to training camp, that they wanted to see how he would do as the team’s third centre.
In 4 games, the 13th overall pick from this year’s draft went pointless, held a -3 rating, averaged 14:03 TOI, and skated about 11 total minutes on the power play.
It still remains to be seen what Tortorella does ahead of their games against Minnesota and Montréal but he’s juggled the lines effortlessly in an attempt to get the offensive game going – unfortunately to no avail. Ryan Poehling was posted as the third-line centre with Sean Couturier and Morgan Frost ahead of him in the top-6 and Noah Cates patrolling the fourth line.
So with Luchanko returned to the junior circuit, the Flyers are also nearing their deadline with Alexei Kolosov and according to Seravalli and Anthony Di Marco, a decision might come as soon as this weekend with Kolosov apparently expected to start on Sunday.
Ivan Fedotov’s play has made this decision a little more difficult but it seems like the Flyers had a plan in place for Kolosov, who had omitted himself from training camp due to his holdout. Potentially a key in luring him back from Minsk, they had a reported deadline set for the end of October on either promoting him to the big club or sending him back to the KHL on loan.
It sounds like a decision is close to being made and we could see him starring in his NHL debut this weekend.
Now, Kolosov hasn’t had the greatest of starts in the AHL to make this a home-run move, but it could be seen as a leveraging point from the Flyers’ brass to keep him away from the KHL, because let’s be real, can it get any worse than what Fedotov has given them?
Kolosov carries a lot of potential from his days in the KHL and this could be his big opportunity in staking a claim at the NHL – something he strongly believes he can do. Samuel Ersson is locked in as the de-facto 1A in whatever tandem they roll with, but he needs help from a dependable backup netminder or we are going to be in store for a repeat of 2023-24.
Fedotov needs more seasoning and he would get that in the AHL with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Missing an entire year due to military service, compounded with the fact that he was then forced into a contract with CSKA Moscow, and was then rushed to the NHL hasn’t helped his case. He has to clear waivers first but with a $3.25 million AAV through next season, there might not be many teams willing to take the risk.
It’s never a dull moment in Philadelphia and 2024-25 has brilliantly followed suit from last year’s topsy-turvy campaign. Luchanko will be a force for Guelph once again and should be a lock for Team Canada at the World Juniors, while we may finally get to see what Kolosov is made of.
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