The Philadelphia Flyers are bringing in some more young players to go along for the ride in the playoffs and now it’s a fairly divisive prospect who is going to be joining the team.
Announced by the Flyers on Wednesday morning, they have officially recalled center prospect Jett Luchanko from the OHL’s Brantford Bulldogs.
After the Barrie Colts stormed back from a 3-1 series deficit to take the Eastern Conference Final and play the Kitchener Rangers for the J. Ross Robertson Cup, to then punch their ticket to the Memorial Cup; the Bulldogs season ended and so did Luchanko’s. And now, he is joining a “black ace” squad that features other top Flyers prospects like Oliver Bonk and David Jiricek.
It will be extremely shocking if Luchanko gets in a game during the playoffs. The Flyers are down 2-0 in the second round to the Carolina Hurricanes, and while they could use Luchanko’s speed down the middle more than anything right now, throwing in a 19-year-old who just had a mediocre Draft+2 season playing junior hockey, straight into must-win playoff games, might not be exactly what they want to do.
Last year, we saw Luchanko lace up for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms to close out his season but now that the Flyers’ AHL team missed the playoffs, we don’t get to see any of that. But the six points in the seven AHL playoff games he did play last year at just 18 years old did at least show some promise.
Jett Luchanko’s season left more to be desired
Luchanko did have a complicated season though. He started out the year making the Flyers out of training camp, just like the year prior, but played even fewer minutes and looked even less impactful under Rick Tocchet compared to his stint under John Tortorella.
He was sent back to juniors and after putting up very solid numbers with two goals and 17 points in 11 games for the Guelph Storm, he was then traded to the best team in the OHL during the regular season, the Brantford Bulldogs. But that is where things started to go south in overall impact.
The Bulldogs tenure was a weird one. Luchanko’s main ability is his speed and his playmaking. Brantford already had Seattle Kraken prospect Jake O’Brien as their top center who also is a top-end playmaker, and unfortunately for Luchanko, Caleb Malhotra rose up the ranks to raise his stock at the upcoming 2026 NHL Draft and took his second-line center spot.
So with Luchanko’s speed, they put him on the right wing next to O’Brien and it just didn’t work. Throughout the entire season he scored just 26 points in 27 games and in the playoffs, just seven points in 15 games. He just doesn’t have a winger’s game and the Bulldogs were paying more attention to Malhotra’s development and winning games, than to cater their style to bring the most out of Luchanko.
After personally watching several Bulldogs games this season, it was clear that they just weren’t the team for Luchanko. The Flyers prospect didn’t suddenly just stop knowing how to play hockey. So, we urge everyone reading this sentence to not just look at his stat sheet and determine he is a bust or a broken prospect. He’s just not a winger.
But what if the Flyers want to throw Luchanko into the playoffs?
If the Flyers, for some strange reason, really think the best thing would be to have Luchanko actually play in some games, then we would need to hear their answer. But, we suspect that the injury to Noah Cates is worse than we thought and he would be out, and that Rick Tocchet wants to keep Trevor Zegras on the wing. That leaves them with either moving Sean Couturier up the lineup and having Luke Glendening center the fourth line, having Jacob Gaucher make his playoff debut, or having Luchanko come in.
In a vacuum, the Flyers do need exactly who Luchanko profiles to be at his peak in these playoffs right now. They need someone who can match the Hurricanes’ pace of play while also being responsible in all three zones. He would be able to skate around the staunch blue line of Carolina and maybe set up some teammates while doing it. One could even imagine him opening up some more ice for the Flyers’ lethal shooters of Tyson Foerster or Porter Martone to get more shots off.
But this is also major projection and the only thought process we could reasonably think of if the Flyers go down this route.
Most likely, Luchanko will just be getting some good experience hanging around at practices and morning skates in the NHL at the most important time of year. Getting a big ol’ taste.
