There was excitement in the air when 2024 first-round pick Jett Luchanko made the Philadelphia Flyers’ opening roster for the second consecutive season.
After making the roster in his draft year largely thanks to John Tortorella singing his praises, he played in just four games with the Flyers before getting sent back to the Guelph Storm in the OHL. Some thought — myself included — that it would be different this time around, but once again the 19-year-old center saw just four games before being sent back to the OHL on Monday.
Luchanko was at least given a legitimate look and opportunity last year. He played at least 12:14 in each of his four games, topping out at 17:00 in his second game of the year. But that wasn’t the case this season.
He once again played in just four games, but he was benched for long portions of some, and he only averaged 8:58 of ice time per contest. In fact, he only reached the 10-minute mark once, playing 10:40 across 13 shifts in the 5-2 loss to Winnipeg.
Luchanko’s stat line was the same, posting no points and a minus-3 rating, but this time he only had one shot on goal to the four he had last year.
It’s understandable why the Flyers sent Luchanko back to the OHL. Their center depth showed up early in the season, even with offseason additions Christian Dvorak and Trevor Zegras sharing duties on the same line, and Rodrigo Abols proved in camp that he can stick around in the NHL.
While it’s more than understandable to let Luchanko get those big minutes in the OHL, and likely with Team Canada at the World Junior Championship, it’s a bit confusing as to how the Flyers got to this point.
Why Luchanko was sent back to OHL
Let’s take a look at what Briere said on Monday after sending Luchanko down:
“Very simple. We want him to play high minutes,” Briere told the media, via PHLY’s Charlie O’Connor. “We’ve liked what we’ve seen, he could have stayed here, he showed that he can play, but we want more than that for him in the long run. We felt at this point, it was time for him to start playing high minutes.”
Sure, that’s all well and good. Luchanko absolutely could hold his own in the bottom six of an NHL team right now, but Briere explained that he didn’t force the Flyers’ hand to find him more minutes in the NHL.
There’s no real issue there.
But why not give Luchanko a look with the Phantoms before sending him back, or more preferably, to see if he is ready for the next step.
Yes, the rules do not allow for the Flyers to send Luchanko to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, but there is always a workaround. If a player is a healthy scratch for more than five consecutive games, he can be sent down to the AHL for a conditioning stint of up to 14 days.
“Yeah, we looked into that,” Briere said. “But it was another week of him sitting around, not allowed to play him. And after that, you’re only allowed two weeks (in the AHL), & you’ve got to keep him on your (NHL) roster. … That complicates things. There’s all kinds of little things like that, that were coming into play that just made it difficult. So we figured it’s best just to send him back, have him go play heavy minutes and get ready for his junior year and hopefully the World Juniors.”
No one wants Luchanko to sit around and not play. He needs to develop parts of his skillset, and he can do that by playing in actual game action.
But Luchanko sat around not playing anyway. In my mind, there was a relatively easy solution for the Luchanko situation, at least to start the season.
How it should’ve played out for Luchanko
If the Flyers wanted Luchanko to be able to play big minutes at the professional level, the AHL was going to be the place to do that. He looked the part at the end of last season with the Phantoms, and it may have been worth healthy scratching him for the first five games of the NHL season to send him back to the AHL.
That would be scratching Luchanko from October 9 to 16, but he’d still be around the team and getting in practice time rather regularly.
If they did that, they could’ve sent Luchanko down to the AHL on a conditioning stint. He may not have been able to get to Cleveland for the Friday night game, but surely he’d be available to make his season debut on Saturday.
After that, he would’ve been able to practice with the Phantoms before a Wednesday game in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and a home-and-home with the Hershey Bears last weekend. Those are some pretty good teams in the AHL and would’ve been a nice way to see if Luchanko can play top-six minutes in that type of environment.
His final game with the Phantoms would then be this Wednesday, the 29th, at which point the Flyers could have made a better educated decision with Luchanko. Instead, they didn’t give him the playing time they wanted to, and he essentially sat around for a month knowing that he’d be going back to the Guelph Storm.
In my alternate timeline, the Flyers could see how Luchanko handles a handful of games in the AHL over a two-week period, and then decide from there. If things at the NHL level were going as well as they are now, no problem, either try to get Luchanko in the mix (if he’s earned it), or send him back down.
The best-case scenario would’ve been Luchanko impressing in the AHL and forcing the Flyers’ hand to get him minutes in the NHL. The worst-case would be him looking like he needs more time in the OHL and sending him down, which they did anyway, but at least he would’ve been getting consistent ice time in the league where he probably should be playing right now.
Instead, the Flyers essentially wasted a month of Luchanko’s season — yes, it can be argued that hanging around the NHL club is beneficial — and sent him back down anyway.
All in all, this ultimately shouldn’t have a huge impact on Luchanko’s career trajectory, but it certainly opens the door for criticism if he doesn’t reach his ceiling of a top-six (or middle-six) center.
