Philadelphia Flyers general manager Danny Briere, along with assistant general manager Brent Flahr and the rest of the staff, feels that the Flyers have a future stud on their hands in the form of 2024 first-round pick Jett Luchanko.
Luchanko, 18, was drafted 13th overall in the first round of the 2024 NHL Draft at the end of June as one of the youngest, most athletic, and most competitive players in his draft class. The Guelph Storm forward, however, was ranked a bit lower by outside draft experts and was generally regarded as a future standout checking forward, not a top-six center.
Briere and the Flyers see Luchanko as much more than a checking forward, and for good reason.
“Luchanko has extraordinary skating. He competes at the highest level, he is extremely intelligent. He will definitely play [in the NHL] and we believe that there is still offensive potential to develop,” Briere told Mathias Bruent of La Presse in a recent interview. “He had 74 points in 68 games and he wasn’t playing for an offensive powerhouse. Everything went through him, at 17, in the Ontario Junior League: first center, first line on the power play and penalty kill, faceoffs.”
Added Briere: “He reminds me a lot of Nick Suzuki. He’s not the biggest, but he’s very effective in all facets of the game. If he becomes half of Suzuki, we’ll be happy. We were able to obtain a third-round pick that we were able to use to advance to the second round to draft defenseman Spencer Gill, from Rimouski, at 59th overall, another one that our scouts had ranked in the first round. That gives us Luchanko and Gill rather than just one player at 12th".
By all accounts, that makes for a successful draft on paper with the Flyers, though that will ultimately be decided by the players as they develop and venture off into their professional careers down the road.
For those who might not know much about Suzuki, the 25-year-old center draws many parallels to Luchanko.
Both Luchanko and Suzuki hail from London, Ontario, stand at 5-foot-11, were drafted 13th overall in their respective drafts, and played in the OHL for Guelph. Suzuki was slightly further along offensively in his draft year, though, scoring 45 goals, 51 assists, and 96 points in 65 games for the Owen Sound Attack in the 2016-17 season.
Now 25 years old, Suzuki is the captain of the Montreal Canadiens and guided the Habs to a Stanley Cup Final appearance in only his second year in the NHL. After scoring a career-high 77 points last season as the team’s No. 1 center, Suzuki is the figurehead of a rebuilt, rejuvenated Canadiens team that now offers him a supporting cast that includes Juraj Slafkovsky, Cole Caufield, Patrik Laine, Kirby Dach, Alex Newhook, and eventually, Ivan Demidov.
Briere isn’t the only one who sees a bit of Suzuki in Luchanko. The young Flyers prospect drew that parallel himself not long after hearing his name called by Michael Buffer at the draft.
“I like Nick Suzuki. He grew up in London as well,” Luchanko said after being selected by the Flyers. “He played on the Storm as well, so he’s someone I always watched really close. Someone who has a lot of detail to his game and does a lot of things right, so I’ve always liked to watch him.”
