One of the key Philadelphia Flyers prospects was able to earn a couple primary assists and make outrageous plays Wednesday night in the Calder Cup Playoffs.
As soon as the Philadelphia Flyers selected center Jett Luchanko 13th overall last June, and more and more people dove deep to entrench themselves in all the scouting reports they can handle, the main development goal for the young forward became clear.
Unlike most young prospects coming from junior hockey, Luchanko’s defense and work ethic were near the top of the class and ready to take the leap into the professional level. There was no question that he could make an impact on the defensive side of the puck and use his top-end speed to cover the ice well. The major hope was that Luchanko’s offense would develop and then the Flyers could have one of the most exciting two-way talents in the whole league.
The 18-year-old didn’t receive nearly enough help with the OHL’s Guelph Storm for his numbers to jump off the page, and now several games into his post-juniors stint with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, his offensive potential is finally getting exposed — and it happened to be at the exact right moment.
Wednesday night was Game 1 of the Phantom’s three-game, first-round series against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. It ended with a dominant 5-2 Phantoms win to take the series lead and be just one more win away from moving on, but more importantly, some key young prospects are getting on the score sheet and most importantly, it’s Luchanko.
To double the Phantoms’ lead in the second period, Luchanko connected with fellow top Flyers prospect Alex Bump. The former Bronco poked the puck up along the boards to have a fairly clean zone entry, Luchanko scooped it up with his top-end speed, had all the space in the world because of how quick he was able to get to it, avoided a backchecker, set himself up for a pass, and Bump beautifully one-timed it home past the Penguins’ netminder.
That was beautiful and maybe a sneak peek into what we could see up in Philadelphia for the foreseeable future. Luchanko did have lots of time and space out there, so it wasn’t the most applicable offensive play for what we could expect to see in the NHL from just any other prospect, but with a little bit more power and his speed taking advantage of lost defensive coverages, pockets like that could open up for the young center.
Luchanko wasn’t done. After earning a primary assist on the Bump goal to make it 2-0, he decided to show even more of his skills to make it a 5-0 lead for Lehigh Valley.
This time, it was just condensing his entire game and on-ice threat into one play. He remained as the one solo forechecker during a line change on the ice and the Penguins defenseman mishandled the puck so that it was just floating out there on its own. Luchanko snapped at the opportunity, grabbed possession before the defender could even think a second thought. The 18-year-old then kept possession all the way through, going deep in the zone, taking on four Penguins in their own zone, going behind the goal line to the other halfwall and spotted a streaking Anthony Richard on the other wing. Luchanko then made a perfect pass through several sticks and skates so that the veteran AHLer could snipe it home and caught the entire Penguins team off-guard.
It’s one of those plays where you can see what separated him from the rest and why the Flyers leaped to take him over some prospects that were more publicly praised. His motor is out of this world and being the puckhound he is, Luchanko can go as far as his offensive game can take him.
Wednesday night was a big step in the right direction. We have to almost remind ourselves that he is still just 18 years old. While most first-round prospects are busy playing the second round of whatever junior-league playoffs they’re in and only know what the pressure is playing up against the Swift Current Broncos; Luchanko already has NHL games under his belt and is now playing important games and thriving during playoff hockey just one step away from the big leagues.
For at least 24 hours, we can put to rest our concern that Luchanko might have a limited offensive ceiling. From what we saw Wednesday night, becoming an impact top-six center is certainly not out of the question.
