At least for now, 2024 first-round pick Jett Luchanko has made the Philadelphia Flyers roster, as final cuts to the training camp squad were made on Friday afternoon.
Luchanko, 18, seemingly made the cut over other hopefuls, such as Olle Lycksell, Anthony Richard, Adam Ginning, and Emil Andrae.
This is especially notable given that Lycksell and Richard, the two likeliest players to make the Flyers roster, have to pass through waivers in order to be assigned to the AHL. That’s a big risk to take if Luchanko is only getting a nine-game tryout.
Rodrigo Abols, Oscar Eklind, Samu Tuomaala, Andrae, Ginning, Helge Grans, Hunter McDonald, Alexei Kolosov, Cal Petersen, and Cooper Marody (AHL) were the ten players assigned to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Friday, while top prospects Denver Barkey and Oliver Bonk were returned to the OHL London Knights.
After these cuts, the Flyers roster sits at the maximum 23 players, which obviously includes Luchanko.
So, how do things look now?
Flyers Roster
Matvei Michkov – Sean Couturier – Travis Konecny
Owen Tippett – Morgan Frost – Tyson Foerster
Joel Farabee – Jett Luchanko – Bobby Brink
Scott Laughton – Ryan Poehling – Garnet Hathaway
Cam York – Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler – Jamie Drysdale
Egor Zamula – Rasmus Ristolainen
Extras: Noah Cates, Nick Deslauriers, and Erik Johnson
Sam Ersson, Ivan Fedotov
If the Flyers have questions about Luchanko’s ability to produce offense, he’ll be in a pretty good spot to develop those instincts on a line with Joel Farabee and Bobby Brink.
Those three have been a prominent combination throughout training camp and the NHL preseason, and they played particularly well against the Washington Capitals early on in the exhibition slate.
Luchanko’s inclusion on the roster is not necessarily a shock in the sense that, despite his young age, he is still good at the things he was good at when he was drafted.
Those things include his defensive stick, defensive positioning, forechecking, anticipating plays, faceoffs, and winning puck battles. If you’re good at most of those things like Luchanko is, that makes you a third- or fourth-line center in the NHL.
For Luchanko to become more than that, he has to utilize his speed and improve on the other side of the ice. In that sense, the freshly-turned 18-year-old was actually a safe pick. He is, at worst, what he is right now.
Flyers head coach John Tortorella is in the business of winning games, and he clearly felt that Luchanko, as he is right now, can help the Flyers do that. And that’s how we got here today.
