Cool brisk air is starting to arrive over Southeastern Pennsylvania. The Phillies have recently clinched the NL East and are starting to gear up for Red October. Across the street the Eagles have started off… well not hot and not cold; maybe lukewarm? All of this is great, but what it really means is that Philadelphia Flyers regular season hockey is right around the corner.
NHL training camps across the league are winding down, as are the preseason games. These last few games are really just to see which fringe players will be starting the season with the Flyers in the NHL, and which players are going to be sent down to the AHL, ECHL, or even back to their junior teams in Canada.
A lot has happened in FlyerLand this training camp. Matvei Michkov came over from Russia and got his first impression of the NHL. John Tortorella brought out the rope yet again on the first day of camp and made the Flyers skate around it over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and ov…
Another major story from camp was this Alexei Kolosov situation. The entire mess started with Kolosov deciding to quit and leave for Belarus after reportedly not interacting with Phantoms teammates in Allentown and expecting a roster spot this upcoming season. The Flyers played chicken with Kolosov by signing goalie Eetu Mäkiniemi to an entry-level contract. The very next day Kolosov hopped on a plane and made his way back over to the States.
Lost in all of this excitement for Michkov, and the mess of the Kolosov situation, was another pretty big development: the early success of the Flyers’ 13th overall pick in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft, Jett Luchanko.
The Case for Jett Luchanko
This summer has been a roller coaster of emotions from the fanbase surrounding Luchanko. It started with draft night, when fans were… not pleased at the selection of Luchanko. Over the past few months, public opinion on Luchanko changed for the positive. The big swing came during rookie camp. Luchanko was heads and shoulders above the other rookie prospects attending camp. He was faster. His hands were better than everyone else’s. He was better on the forecheck. And he also had the best Hockey IQ out of all of the rookies there.
Danny Brière and the rest of the front office also saw what we as fans saw in Luchanko. Before he could leave the facility on the last day of camp, the Flyers signed Luchanko to a three-year entry level contract.
From there Luchanko has only impressed more. At training camp, he has not looked outmatched one bit. For a kid that just turned 18, he looks right at home playing grown men. Early into training camp, Matvei Michkov was asked about Luchanko, as Michkov and Luchanko have been paired together a lot during camp.
Michkov had this to say about Luchanko: “I see Jett Luchanko, really, really good guy. Tomorrow we are ready.”
They were ready.
In the first preseason game, Luchanko looked like he should be on the opening day roster. The Flyers pounced on the Capitals, winning 6-2. Luchanko contributed by collecting two assists, had 2 SOG, and showed off his incredible skating ability.
Luchanko had been so good, John Tortorella even had his eyes opened to him possibly making the team out of training camp.
In the Flyers’ first episode of “The Standard: Inside Flyers Training Camp”, Tortorella and Flyers President Keith Jones had nothing but positive things to say about Luchanko in a teem meeting discussing the roster.
That is some high praise right there from two all time hockey minds. Now the next question Luchanko had to answer was could he repeat the performance he against the Capitals after taking the night off against the Canadiens.
Luchanko once again did not disappoint. In the most recent preseason game against the Islanders, he once again did not look out of place. While he did not record a point, his forechecking, skating ability, playmaking, and Hockey IQ were seen in full force.
Now did it help that he was on a line with presumably the Flyers’ opening night first line wingers in Tyson Foerster and Travis Konecny? Yes. But when you see that most of Luchanko’s minutes came against one of the best shutdown defensive pairs over the past few years (Ryan Pulock and Adam Pelech) his lack of point production makes sense. He controlled what he could control and that was his forechecking, defensive responsibility, and winning half of his faceoffs (6/13).
When thinking about Luchanko for the opening night roster, it feels like a no-brainer. The Flyers’ lack of center depth in the organization is apparent. On top of that, the need for fast, high IQ, decent playmaking centers is at an all time high with the style of pay in the modern NHL.
If the Flyers are taking Luchanko’s development seriously, sending him back to Guelph right away would be one of the worst things they could do. Yes his shot does need more work, as do most 18-year-old’s, but filling the net on kids who just graduated high school a year prior might not be the best path for him, especially on a bad team like Guelph.
With Luchanko’s age and contract structure, the Flyers actually have the chance to have Luchanko play the first nine games of the season and see where he’s at developmentally without burning a year off his ELC. If the Flyers do think he isn’t ready for the NHL after his nine game tryout, that’s great! At least they gave him a shot to prove himself before shipping him back up to Canada. If he is ready to play at the NHL level, the Flyers have a high IQ, speedy, defensively-gifted rookie 3C for the season. If that sounds familiar it’s because Sean Couturier did the exact same thing, and his 2011-2012 season was pretty, pretty good if you remember.
All in all, it doesn’t hurt to have Luchanko play in the show right away. He’s looking like he’ll be a good player for the Flyers for a while, so getting him an early look will only make him more comfortable for when he is here full time.
Plus, they wouldn’t have given him #17 if he wasn’t going to make the roster. Let’s be for real, that’s not a temporary rookie number.
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