Flyers Farm Stars: Cole Knuble picking up steam, Jett Luchanko keeps rolling

Another week, another report! The season is beginning to wind down and we’re seeing the whole gambit of possibilities addressed within the prospect group — some guys on the move, some big names rolling, while others step up after a quiet spell. Let’s get right into all of it!

The News of the Week

Things are almost certainly going to be picking up before long, but in the meantime, we\'ll welcome a quiet week in the way of happenings. The one big event of note is that, on the other side of his return from injury, Jack Berglund has been loaned to Karlskoga of the Allsvenskan. And this is good news for him — he\'s spent much of the season bouncing between the J20 and SHL levels, and struggling to find a role in either. That is, he\'s too good and mature for the J20 Nationell and has kind of maxed out his development at that level, but he\'s been a little overmatched in his time in the SHL. This allows him to finish the season in a bit of a middle ground and hopefully find some stability, a foundation to begin building up from.

Three Stars

Cole Knuble

To kick things off, it was another big week for Knuble, who continues to show well as the NCAA regular season is winding down. It was also a reasonably successful weekend for his Notre Dame team at large, as they split their two-game series with Wisconsin, coming away with a win apiece, and Knuble was right at the center of the success that they did have. He had a goal and an assist in each of those two games, continuing to show up in big ways for his team. It\'s a shame that they\'re not really built for a run in the same way that some of these other prospects\' teams are, but it\'s nice to see him working well within the framework he has, all the same.

Noah Powell

It was, if nothing else, a high event weekend for Powell up in the OHL. He played just two games on the weekend as well, and started off nicely, putting up two assists in his first game. He then picked up steam in a big way for his second game against Kingston — coming away with not just two huge goals to his name, but also a big fight on top of it. And this is, in truth, more or less what we expected to see from Powell in that league as a slightly older and more physically mature player, that he be a physical force and begin to clean up on offense, but it\'s still a positive to see him rising to that occasion.

Jett Luchanko

It was sort of a funny week for Luchanko. He had four games on deck for the week and it all went like this — he was held off the board entirely in Guelph\'s game against SSM, then in the next game against Saginaw, he had two goals and an assist, and then they were on to face Kitchener and Luchanko again went without so much as a point, and finally, against Barrie to close out the week, he put up again two goals and an assist. It all averages out to a productive week on the whole, of course, but a weird little quirk like that is always an even more fresh and fun way to talk about a prospect like Luchanko who always seems to show up producing week in and week out.

Honorable Mentions

We didn\'t see much in the way of huge bursts of production from the Phantoms this past week, but there\'s still good news -- as they wrapped up a reasonably successful road trip out to the Midwest, just about the whole of the prospect group got involved on the offensive front. Zayde Wisdom was the biggest contributor, with a two goals and an assist -- though he did find his production a bit front-loaded, with all of that production coming last Friday in Grand Rapids, and then being held off the scoresheet for the next two games. The Phantoms also got a nice bit of offense chipped in from their defense, as Emil Andrae put up a goal and two assists, while Hunter McDonald had a goal and an assist, and Adam Ginning stepped up with three assists. And then back on the forward side, Olle Lycksell, after kicking off the trip with a goal, finished it out with three assists over the last three games, while each of JR Avon, Jacob Gaucher, and Massimo Rizzo each had a goal.

Back in the NCAA, we had our first matchup between prospect teams in a hot second, with Alex Bump and Western Michigan facing off against Ty Murchison and ASU. This series ended up split with each team taking home one win, and Murchison had an assist on the weekend in that win for ASU, while Bump put up a goal and an assist between those two games.

Elsewhere, Owen McLaughlin looked to be finding his offense again, as he was held off the scoresheet in North Dakota\'s first game against UMD of the weekend, but then exploded in the second to put up a goal and four assists. Hopefully this sets him up to finish out the regular season strong, as things have been a little up and down for him up to this point.

And finally, back to the Junior ranks. Down in the USHL, Austin Moline has started to get rolling again, and he came away from last week\'s three games with two assists (his first points since the end of January), while Heikki Ruohonen found a bit of production in a tough week for Dubuque -- that is, he picked up a goal across their two losses to the National Team Development Program. And then, finally, up in London, things are still going well for our pair of prospects. Over their last three games played, Oliver Bonk chipped in two assists, while Denver Barkey doubled up on that, coming away with four.

Talking Points