VOORHEES, N.J. — Now matter how his career unfolds, Jett Luchanko will forever be known as the Flyers prospect who was first introduced by the booming, mellifluous voice of boxing announcer Michael Buffer at the NHL draft at the Sphere in Las Vegas in June.
One week into his first NHL training camp, it’s fair to wonder how soon another legendary announcer — Lou Nolan, the Flyers’ P.A. man since 1972 — might be belting out Luchenko’s name too.
The Flyers made their first cuts of training camp on Wednesday morning and promptly rearranged themselves into two distinct groups. One features all the locks to make the NHL roster. Luchanko is in that group as the lone individual who has never played an NHL game. Bubble players Olle Lycksell and Adam Ginning, both aiming for a depth NHL role, also remain with the primary group.
Essentially an NHL group and AHL/junior group now. Notables on NHL still are Luchanko, Lycksell and Ginning pic.twitter.com/qLGMEVZJev
— Kevin Kurz (@KKurzNHL) September 25, 2024
No one said it explicitly on Wednesday, but no one had to — Luchanko has impressed enough in camp that he’s going to dress for at least one or two more preseason games, and the door has not been shut on making the opening-night roster.
To be clear, that still seems unlikely. The Flyers are still looking primarily towards the future and have made it an organizational priority to not rush players; they have four established NHL centers on the roster (five if you include Noah Cates) and, depending on what happens with Ryan Johansen’s contract termination, simply might not have the cap space to fit Luchanko even if they wanted to.
But, again, the door is still open.
“We’re just going to let it play out,” coach John Tortorella said on Monday when asked about Luchenko’s immediate future. “He’s had a very good camp. … Just let him play. He’s going to play some more exhibition games. Very exciting as far as what you see right now.”
Luchenko started opening some eyes in rookie camp two weeks ago, when Phantoms coach Ian Laperriere mentioned he was “very impressed” by what he called Luchanko’s “mature game.”
Joel Farabee skated on Luchanko’s left wing in the Flyers’ preseason opener in Washington on Sunday, a 6-2 win over the Capitals in which Luchanko notched a pair of assists. With Bobby Brink on right wing, they were the Flyers’ most effective line against a weak Washington lineup.
“Jett, as a center, it’s not easy to step into an NHL game, even if it’s just preseason, and play with NHL guys,” said Farabee. “He’s done a really good job in my opinion of just being responsible and letting his instincts take over and not thinking too much.”
There also Luchanko’s fitness, which is one of the reasons he shot up the Flyers’ draft chart as the eventual No. 12 selection. Tortorella spoke on Wednesday about how he was handed a 25-page printout in the morning from someone on the Flyers’ training staff detailing the conditioning level of each player.
Naturally, that’s important to a guy like Tortorella, who puts such a premium on skating and getting into proper physical shape from Day 1.
“He’s in elite condition,” Tortorella said. “You can see that, the amount of skating we’ve done, he just keeps going. He’s a strong kid. Bigger than I thought he was, when you get up close with him. He’s just handled himself really well.”
Regarding all the skating so far, Luchanko said, “It’s definitely a lot. It hasn’t been too bad. Obviously everyone’s really fast, and good here. I think I’ve managed pretty well here, and hopefully it keeps going.”
Prior to the start of camp, Flyers general manager Daniel Brière made clear he didn’t want to be closed-minded regarding young players arriving with the mindset of wanting to make the team. At the same time, Brière’s tone and body language strongly suggested it was probably not something they were seriously considering for a number of reasons. For one, there just don’t seem to be any openings on the roster now with the unexpected arrival of Matvei Michkov.
“It’s more than just are they ready, but what about the future, too?” Briere said. “You have to consider what’s best for their development, what’s best for three, five, seven years down the road when you talk about guys that are 18 or 19 years old.”
One play in particular on Wednesday offered a reminder that Luchenko really hasn’t gone up against NHL-level competition yet. During a two-on-two drill in the offensive zone, after digging around for a puck in the corner Luchenko quickly pivoted and pushed a pass towards the front of the net, seeking Jamie Drysdale. A split second later he was peeling himself up off the ice, having just been bodied by 6-4, 208-pound defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen.
Asked about that moment, Luchanko said: “These guys are no joke when it comes to the strength side of it, and they’ve been doing it for awhile.”
Against the Capitals, Luchenko spent most of his time on the ice against Washington center Ethen Frank and defensemen Ethan Bear and Alexander Alexeyev — marginal NHL players, or, in Frank’s case, a career AHLer so far. While Tortorella was happy to see some offense from Luchanko and others, he cautioned against reading too much into that game based on the inexperience and youth in the Capitals roster that night.
Preseason game rosters, of course, will become more NHL-heavy as the next few days and weeks go by. The Flyers host the Islanders on Thursday and Bruins on Saturday — two teams expecting to make the playoffs in 2024-25. Luchanko will surely play in at least one, if not both games.
If he struggles, it will make the Flyers’ decision easy. The prospect will return to Guelph in the OHL, with an opportunity to play big minutes and on the top power play unit, while aiming for a spot on the Canadian world juniors team, too.
And he’ll get to work on other parts of his game. At development camp in July, Flyers assistant general manager Brent Flahr and player development director Riley Armstrong indicated they’d like to see Luchanko improve his decision-making, while adding a little more finish to his game and capitalizing on his scoring chances.
Luchanko admitted “there’s definitely still more work to be done” in that area of his game on Wednesday, and that it’s at “the top of the list.”
For now, he’ll get to continue to work on that and other areas of his game in camp with guys that could be his Flyers teammates sooner than maybe anyone anticipated.
“We’ll see where it goes,” Tortorella said, “and try to do the best thing for the kid when the time comes.”
(Photo: Geoff Burke / Imagn Images)
