Five Philadelphia Flyers prospects, including first-round picks Oliver Bonk and Jett Luchanko, have been named to Hockey Canada’s U-20 World Junior Summer Showcase camp roster in anticipation of the 2025 World Junior Championship, which will begin on Dec. 26.
The Summer Showcase camp will run from July 26 to Aug. 3 at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Michigan, and will include games and practices against fellow hockey juggernauts Finland, Sweden, and the United States. Macklin Celebrini, the 2024 No. 1 overall pick by the San Jose Sharks, was invited by Canada but will not attend.
Players representing the Philadelphia Flyers include 2024 first-round pick Luchanko, 2023 first-round pick Bonk, 2023 second-round pick Carson Bjarnason, 2023 third-round pick Denver Barkey, and 2023 fifth-round pick Carter Sotheran. Bonk is one of six players who returns from Canada’s 2023 World Juniors roster.
All five Flyers prospects starred at the Flyers’ annual development camp at the beginning of July, though Sotheran was the only one out of the group who did not play in the scrimmage finale.
Bjarnason and Bonk were, regrettably, on the losing end of a Team Jones blowout victory over Team Briere.
“On and off the ice, the more you get to know him, the drive that he has, he’s got a quiet intensity about him,” Flyers assistant general manager Brent Flahr said of Luchanko following the conclusion of development camp. “I think you saw, probably in small amounts, the details to his game, the speed, the skill that he has. Just a very mature game for a young player, a guy that just skyrocketed up the rankings there the second half of the year.
“Anybody that’s ever coached him or been around him just rave about his approach to the game, how he handles himself on and off the ice. I think that lends [itself] well to dramatic improvement here going forward.”
Luchanko, 17, was drafted 13th overall by the Flyers in the first round of the 2024 NHL Draft on June 28, a decision that came as a great surprise to insiders and outsiders alike. But, the Flyers weren’t interested in the canard that they reached on Luchanko.
“We really wanted Jett,” said Flyers general manager Danny Briere after the end of the first round. “We feel he’s just starting to tap his potential.”
Luchanko, alongside Bonk, Bjarnason, Sotheran, and Barkey–the latter was narrowly left off the roster in 2023–will begin to make their cases to represent their nation at the 2025 World Junior Championships shortly.
