Jett Luchanko was not expected to be this good yet.
After being selected 13th overall by the Philadelphia Flyers at the 2024 NHL Draft, as he walked the stage still just 17 years old — and was viewed as a controversial pick after the team passed on top college defenseman Zeev Buium and Finnish center Konsta Helenius — Luchanko was viewed as a longer-term project. He was a seen as a center that had speed to burn but needed to work on being more of a dynamic player.
And that is not to say that he is not that anymore, but his speed and tendencies around the ice has kept him at Flyers training camp much longer than anyone anticipated. Luchanko is already one of the best skaters on this roster (that might not be saying much) and has the forechecking ability to certainly stick out as a middle-six center. The London, Ont. native has so much hard skill that if the Flyers just needed someone to be a third-line, checking center that can score every so often, he might play all 82 games at just 18 years old.
On Thursday night, in his second bout of preseason action, Luchanko was centering a line between two bona fide NHL wingers in Travis Konecny and Tyson Foerster. And the former was more than impressed about what he saw during the game and what he has seen in training camp from the teenager.
“He’s a really smart player for his age and experience,” Koencny said Thursday after the 2-0 preseason victory over the New York Islanders. “Obviously, like anyone tonight, I’m sure he’s going to look back and be bummed about a few different things, which we all are. For him, I just hope he looks at it as we had a lot of good opportunities tonight. He did his job to probably get noticed again — he’s playing well. I like the kid.”
The looking back part is true. While they did win the hockey game, the Flyers did not play extremely well and there were plenty of missed opportunities to score — whether it was overpassing the puck or positional problems, the chances were not being taken advantage of. When it comes to Luchanko, there were a couple moments where he appeared to be overpowered by more physically dominant NHL skaters and where something offensively might have worked in juniors, it did not work on Thursday against actual men.
But, like Konecny mentions, Luchanko did do just enough to get noticed, especially in the second half of the game. He made some plays and had some tremendous forechecking efforts where his speed and pace of play just made you lift off your seat.
And that is something, especially doing it all while playing one of the tougher positions in the sport, that Konecny understands is incredibly difficult to pull off just months after being drafted.
“He’s playing well. If I was expected to do that at his age and play at the center-ice position, I would’ve been done a long time ago. He’s a smart kid, you can tell.”
Luchanko might not end up making the Flyers out of training camp and his NHL debut might have to wait until next season as he makes his way back to the OHL’s Guelph Storm and to dominate that league. But, we cannot say that he did not make an impact and cause us to be even more excited about his potential. His future teammates are clearly excited, too.
