After making the final round of cuts on Friday afternoon, the Philadelphia Flyers roster sits at the maximum 23 players, which includes 2024 first-round pick Jett Luchanko.
Luchanko, 18, is a rare case in the landscape of the NHL. Luchanko turned 18 on Aug. 21 – less than two months ago – and has already snapped up an NHL roster spot with the Flyers, even if it’s only temporary.
The reality of the matter is that players born that late into the summer generally don’t make the big leagues immediately, and especially not ones who were drafted outside of the top-5 of their draft classes. Luchanko was picked 13th overall in June.
So, for the Flyers to potentially sacrifice two preseason standouts in Olle Lycksell and Anthony Richard means that head coach John Tortorella, general manager Danny Briere, assistant general manager Brent Flahr, and the rest of the coaching staff and front office feel very strongly about Luchanko’s training camp and preseason performances.
We know that the Flyers can keep Luchanko for the first nine games of his fledgling career before returning him to the Guelph Storm of the OHL, so as to avoid burning a year of his entry-level contract.
We also know that Guelph is not the strongest OHL team, so if Luchanko and the Storm are either eliminated in the first round or miss the playoffs entirely, the top Flyers prospect could just return to Philadelphia and play some NHL games at the end of the season rather than at the start.
I suppose it is also possible there is some developmental brainstorming going on behind the scenes. Perhaps the Flyers think it would be best for Luchanko to feel the difficulty of the NHL first before going to Guelph, versus going to Guelph and hitting a wall at the end of March or the beginning of April.
How Luchanko fits the Flyers
Beyond the whole nine-game trial debacle, an argument can be made that, in a vacuum, Jett Luchanko really should be on the Flyers.
Scott Laughton, the assistant captain who featured in the No. 3 center role for much of 2023-24, struggled in big minutes, and especially early in the season. Laughton did finish with 39 points, the second-best figure of his career, but a chunk of that was buoyed by a seven-game point streak in February after Sean Couturier’s wheels started to fall off.
Laughton’s underlying metrics were pretty ugly, but he still adds value as a penalty killer. He’s not getting any younger, either, so perhaps the 30-year-old would be better served playing a more limited role.
Luchanko’s other competitors for ice time come in the forms of Noah Cates and Ryan Poehling.
Poehling seems stapled to the No. 4 center role after scoring a career-high 11 goals, 17 assists, and 28 points in 77 games, even after being a healthy scratch a few times early in 2023-24. Cates, on the other hand, is up against the wall vying for a place in the lineup as Tortorella demands more offense out of the versatile forward.
Cates’ advanced numbers were actually outstanding, but it’s true that he and his teammates did not score a whole lot when he was on the ice. However, they also did not allow many goals, and that is equally important.
The 25-year-old has also featured on the penalty kill, though he’s no longer a factor on the power play.
Luchanko, on the other hand, will be used as a weapon on both units. That’s why he is up against Cates more than he is Laughton or Poehling.
Simply put, the Flyers did not keep Luchanko around to give him limited minutes.
The London, Ont., native can be used as a puck carrier on the second power play unit and as a speed demon on the penalty kill. Luchanko is all about speed and fitness, so you can imagine how the Flyers think he’ll fit into a penalty kill group that already features Laughton, Poehling, Travis Konecny, Garnet Hathaway, and others.
Opportunities to score goals and prevent them will be plentiful for Luchanko.
And, speaking of speed, the Flyers are a team that is all about transition, playing fast, and making plays on the rush. Luchanko obviously checks all those boxes, and his extra gear on the ice will prove to be a valuable weapon for projected linemates Joel Farabee and Bobby Brink.
At the same time, Luchanko is also tough as nails and will win pucks off the boards often. As good as they are on the rush, the Flyers were terrible at creating in-zone offense last season and have been for some time.
So, in that aspect, Luchanko is a Swiss Army knife who Tortorella can use to solve a variety of problems on the ice at any given time.
We’ll see where things go from here, especially in regards to Luchanko’s continued development as a player, but it is not hard at all to see why he made the NHL roster so early in his career.
