The Flyers got underway with their training camp this morning, and things are finally really starting to ramp up around here. The pieces to complete their NHL lineup are already largely in place, but there are still a couple of key battles primed to unfold, particularly for spots up front. The Flyers have some key prospects in the mix to go after those spots, and they’ve all got better chances than ever to make real runs at them.
Jett Luchanko
What did we see from Luchanko last season?
Luchanko’s last season was, quite literally, all over the map as he put together very strong training camp last year and earned himself a tryout with the Flyers to start the season (though in it proved that he wasn’t quite ready to take on that NHL role full time yet, let alone on that struggling team), was returned back to Guelph in the OHL for a longer stint there, a quick detour to appear on the Canadian World Junior team, and then ultimately finished out the season joining the Phantoms for the last couple weeks of their regular season, and ultimately their postseason run. It’s enough to give a player whiplash, but Luchanko still put together a solid season on the whole. The flashes he showed in the NHL were nice to see, and even more importantly, he didn’t seem to lose any steam or get bogged down by any disappointment from being sent back to Guelph. Rather, he stepped up as a leader and a dominant contributor for that team, and built up a nice bit of momentum to carry into that eventual AHL debut.
The AHL stint, though, was a bit of a mixed bag — he looked a little outmatched at times, and his lack of shooting instinct was exploited as the postseason went on, but he also didn’t look like a player wholly out of place at that level, and still found times to let his offensive game shine, and it’s hard to overstate how impressive that is, placed in the context of him still being just 18 years old at the time.
What type of role do we expect Luchanko to play this season?
There is certainly a scenario in which Luchanko shows well in camp, but not quite well enough for the Flyers to feel completely confident in his readiness to make the full-time jump to the NHL level yet, and if this is the case, we expect a repeat of what we got from him last season — a return to Guelph to put on an commanding performance, but hopefully this time built on by a stronger World Junior performance and perhaps a trade to an actual contender at the OHL deadline this year, or else the door left open for him to return to the Phantoms for another playoff run. It would certainly allow him to get a high volume of reps and a chance to continue to tinker with his game, while facing a less difficult level of competition. This would be the patient approach, but the door isn’t closed on him to earn an NHL job, if he has a lights out camp, or equally if the Trevor Zegras moved back to center experiment doesn’t look like it’s going to pan out, that door could open wider for him. Now, as he’s been dealing with that lingering injury and missed out on both development and rookie camps, it’s hard to judge where he’s at in his game and preparation, so he’ll need to find a way to hit the ground running when the preseason games kick off.
Alex Bump
What did we see from Bump last season?
By all counts, last season was about as successful as anyone could have drawn up for Bump. He stepped up into a leadership role in his final season at Western Michigan, and took a step forward in his production as well, contributing at over a point per game rate, asserting himself as one of the premier individual players in college hockey, and playing a big part in securing their first National Championship win in program history. And from here, he could have coasted into a game or two of NHL action to cap off his year, but he instead opted to defer the start of his entry level deal to this season, allowing him to join the Phantoms on an amateur tryout for their playoff run.
And while that playoff performance wasn’t perfect — he struggled at times with getting pushed off pucks by bigger and more mature defensemen, and wasn’t quite as effective when he wasn’t able to find the same lanes to the net later in the series against Hershey — but he still held up reasonably well well on the whole against more difficult competition, and created more than his fair share of high quality chances even when he wasn’t converting on them. His game isn’t a finished product, but that early introduction to professional hockey helped him lay a solid foundation of expectations as he heads into his first NHL camp.
What type of role do we expect Bump to play this season?
And it’s a good thing that foundation is in place, because this camp is going to be a big one for him. The roster at the forward position for the Flyers is very nearly filled out with more established players, but there’s still a window open for Bump to come in and claim one of the remaining winger spots still open. It’s not going to be an easy grab, but if the lines from the first day of practice today are any indication, he’s going to get a lot of minutes playing along some very talented players, and placed in the most favorable possible setting to show what he’s able to do. It will be up to him to make the most of that opportunity, and prove that he’s ready for the NHL and he’s taken what he learned with the Phantoms and took it into a good summer of training to add that much needed strength, and that the positives of what he brings in his offensive game are worth the latitude needed to also work through some of those rougher edges on the fly.
It’s more of a middle-six role that he’s vying for with the NHL squad, and a setting where working through those growing pains on the fly might be a little easier to manage, but if the organization opts to go the extremely patient route with him and give him more time to cook in the AHL, it’s all but a certainty that he’ll be playing a top of the lineup role with them. Even so, we expect to see him getting a sniff at meaningful NHL minutes before too long at all.
Nikita Grebenkin
What did we see from Grebenkin last season?
In his first season of play in North America, Grebenkin faced a bit of a whirlwind — including a pair of short stints, with reasonably solid results, in the NHL with the Leafs in November (for two games) and then again in December (three games) and the big trade to come to the Flyers organization at the deadline — but still managed to get himself adjusted nicely to this style of hockey and post some positive results.
His time with the Phantoms at the end of the season in particular left a lot to come away optimistic about — he put up a perfectly respectable 11 points over his 18 games played with his new team (including a goal and four points across seven playoff games) and brought what was generally a high-paced, physically engaged, tenacious game which really helped to wake up a team that certainly fell into periods of stagnation last year.
What type of role do we expect Grebenkin to play this season?
Unlike someone like Bump, Grebenkin will be coming into training camp looking more to push a Nic Deslauriers out of the mix and claim his spot on the Flyers’ fourth line wing. And while that’s a role that might not lend itself to tapping into the full breadth of his offensive potential, it is one which would suit the rest of his game well. After all, Grebenkin brings a high energy game, a somewhat underrated defensive responsibility, and as we saw in the rookie games last weekend, an already notable ability to hold up physically under really tight defensive pressure. Now, it’s not an easy task to push a veteran out of a lineup spot (even if Deslauriers hasn’t exactly been a bonafide regular in the lineup over the past season), but he’s getting a chance to make a real run at it, and it’s a role we expect to see him getting a look at, if not right out of camp, then at some point later in the season.
