Jett Luchanko has seen his time in pro hockey cut short for a second year in a row. In an unsurprising decision, the Philadelphia Flyers have chosen to send the center prospect back to the Guelph Storm for another year of OHL seasoning.
The 19-year-old showed some promise and speed at the pro level, but failed to register a point in his four NHL games, while primarily playing bottom-six minutes. It was a story that mirrored Luchanko’s cup of coffee in Philadelphia last season: the little things are there, but the overall offensive assertiveness and production just aren’t there to justify giving him a place in the top nine. While he could definitely hack it playing bottom-six minutes, the Flyers rightfully feel he’s capable of more than that.
However, that isn’t a necessarily surprising outcome when we consider that we are talking about a 5-foot-11, 19-year-old. And interestingly, the problems that Luchanko primarily faces aren’t necessarily those that the typical young prospect would deal with. While his positional game, responsibility in his own zone, and explosive speed through the neutral zone all pop, Luchanko lacks that typical rookie flair for the dramatics. Usually that would get rookies in trouble at times, but Luchanko is so drilled in a full-ice game that it seemed like when he got into the offensive zone, he didn’t have that sort of developed “killer instinct”. Luchanko seemed reluctant to take the play by the horns offensive, and even turned down some shot opportunities that seemed pretty straight forward.
By sending him back to Guelph, the Flyers are hoping that Luchanko can take advantage of the severe drop off in competition, and really start to hone in a confident and assertive offensive game, that he can then try to translate to the pro-level.
Guelph will have 50-ish more games left by the time Luchanko is back and settled in, and his road map for the rest of the OHL season should be to try and amass as many points as his situation allows.
Luchanko needs to maximize opportunity in OHL
When Luchanko first arrived in Guelph in 2022-23, it came at a time of stagnation for the Storm after they won the OHL Championship in 2018-19. Starting in his rookie year, the Storm would undergo a drastic fall in competitiveness, as the more aggressive moves they made during their championship season, including a massive deal for Nick Suzuki and Sean Durzi, came home to roost. That left Guelph without the means to properly reload their roster, after burning nearly all their future draft picks in order to acquire talent that promptly left for the NHL soon after. With a new coach and a depleted roster, their win total has decreased every year of Luchanko’s OHL career, and they have failed to put any true talent around him. The situation immediately forced Luchanko into a starring role right away, as the center depth just didn’t offer much to write home about.
Luchanko took on a more holistic approach to being his team’s best player, and tried to hone in on his development as a two-way player, an approach that did ultimately lead to him getting drafted in the top 15. But he never put up the gaudy OHL that some of his draft contemporaries did, even in his draft plus-one year, Luchanko “only” put up 56 points in his 46 OHL games, tracking just a bit above his pace from the year before.
That’s not bad production on a poor team, but it isn’t that massive jump that you tend to see after someone gets drafted that high. But when you look at Guelph’s scoring chart and see that, despite missing 22 games, Luchanko still finished second on his team in points, it starts to make more sense as to why that jump may not have materialized. Upon his return to the Storm, however, the caveats will be removed. Luchanko is going down there to prove that he can dominate, and, as funny as it is, learn how to play just a little bit more selfish.
This is all to say that the environment in which Luchanko has found himself since he started his pro hockey journey may have played a role in shaping him as a player. He has the natural speed to beat defenders easily on the outside, and his game sense and puck skills are both good enough to where he should be able to manipulate the game to his advantage offensively.
But it seems like, at least in his brief cups of coffee with the Flyers, that he hasn’t yet flipped that mental switch. The Flyers’ front office are hoping that his remaining time with the Storm is full of gaudy stat sheets or that he gets traded to another CHL team that is more competitively relevant than the Storm have been recently. Hey, a bit of both wouldn’t be bad, either.
