Jett Luchanko surprised us all. The 18-year-old that was drafted just a few months ago made quite an impres– *head slams into a wall*. Yeah, we’ve heard it all before. The youngest player in Flyers history was decent all the way through training camp and worked his tail off to eventually make his NHL debut and appeared in four games. Yadda, yadda, yadda. He didn’t look out of place in the NHL, but he didn’t score any points and could have improved on some things.
That, of course, led the Flyers to wanting more offense from the most recent first-round pick and to see him truly dominate at the lower level. They don’t want him comfortable being a bottom-six center in the NHL. We know he can do that, but they want him to have a higher ceiling. So, they sent him back to the OHL’s Guelph Storm on Saturday.
Twenty-four hours later, Luchanko suited up for his OHL game of the season. And you know what happened? His Storm got stomped to smithereens by the Brampton Steelheads by a score of 10-1 — with Luchanko earning an assist on that one goal. While the discussion surrounding the Storm being a bad team was overblown, they made the playoffs last year and had some decent players, that is just a perfect summary of Luchanko going back to junior hockey and getting right back in the thick of it. A junior hockey display of dominance like a shotgun to the face.
Luchanko shouldn’t experience this anymore. He should be capable of putting a team on his back as a test for the professional level, but not like this. Thankfully, there are already trade rumors involving the 18-year-old’s name that envision him playing on a much better team. Maybe a team that wouldn’t welcome him back by bleeding out in Southern Ontario.
Let us flex our junior hockey muscle a little bit. This might be too niche to think about, which we understand, but when given the opportunity to write words on the OHL, it is too enticing to pass up.
What team should and could trade for Luchanko and have him playing some top minutes for them? There are certainly some solid options.
London Knights
Just in case you’re new to the world of the Canadian Hockey League and the Ontario Hockey League, the London Knights are basically the New York Yankees. They have the most money pumped into them, a great arena, a historic program, have expectations of trophies almost every single year, and if you’re a fan of any other OHL team, you probably hate the Knights with an unbridled passion. They are annoying and that city will just not stop pumping out top-tier hockey talent.
Our own Travis Konecny calls London home. Nazem Kadri, Bo Horvat, Drew Doughty, Nick Suzuki, Joe Thornton, Jeff Carter, and of course, the legend himself Eric Lindros was born in the Forest City. And if you’ve spent any time looking at Luchanko’s stats, you will also know that the Flyers prospect is from London as well.
That city is just nuts and they have an OHL team that will just not quit. We hate them!!
It does seem just like a perfect match for Luchanko, though. Not only just because he could return to his hometown and play for such a prestigious program, but of course the only other Flyers prospects in the OHL, Denver Barkey and Oliver Bonk, also play for the Knights. It would be perfect, we would only need to tune into one team each week. And on top of that, London could actually use Luchanko’s talents.
Right now, the Knights either have Barkey or St. Louis Blues sixth-rounder Landon Sim as their top-line center. They also have 2024 first-round pick Sam O’Reilly capable of playing down the middle but he has been primarily on the wing. Regardless, the the other talent they have — like Sam Dickinson and Bonk on the blue line, and Maple Leafs prospect Easton Cowan up front — they should at least strive for more and solidify the center position. Luchanko can almost fit perfectly in there. Cowan is crafty and agile, and Luchanko will just mesh so well using his north-south speed and in-tight stickhandling around the net.
Ideally, this is the thing that should happen. Not just for our own selfish reasons, but the Flyers would probably love it too.
Windsor Spitfires
While almost every party involved would certainly prefer Luchanko head over to his hometown Knights, there are other options where the 18-year-old could still grow his offense and not have to worry too much about being the only player with upside on the whole roster. Among them, the Spitfires is an interesting choice.
Windsor is 10-1-1 to start the season and is sitting on top of the Western Conference. In just 12 games, they boast a plus-33 goal differential. And they’re doing all of this without a brand-name star. Liam Greentree, a 2024 first-round pick from the Los Angeles Kings that we liked a fair amount when in our draft coverage, is simply dominating. In 11 games, Greentree has scored seven goals and 26(!) points. The thing with him though, is that his skating was seen as an issue. He is a great player and prospect in every area but that — so imagine a speedy Luchanko fetching him all the pucks and them playing off one another for 30 minutes a night.
The Spitfires is the team where Luchanko could still feel the responsibility of being The Guy, but not on a team that will give up 10 goals in a game. There are benefits to that and not falling into just being one of the better cogs in an overall system featuring dozens of cogs in London. Only issue is if Windsor truly wants to spend several and several draft picks right now.
Oshawa Generals
Flyers fans should know the Generals well enough. Lindros, Laughton, and…well…that is basically it, but if the Knights are the Yankees, the Generals are probably the Braves. Have some of the best NHL talent ever coming from their team (there are multiple murals in downtown Oshawa featuring Bobby Orr) but are not considered contenders every single year. But, the Generals always seem to have multiple very good players.
Right now, Anaheim Ducks third-overall pick Beckett Sennecke and Colorado Avalanche top prospect Calum Ritchie form a formidable duo. Then add in decent Blue Jackets prospect, defenseman Luca Marelli, Leafs first-rounder Ben Danford, and then the recently acquired Jets first-rounder, Colby Barlow. This is a team that is trying to win a championship and move on to the Memorial Cup. These are great players and prospects — several first-round talents — but Luchanko could just be the final piece in what they need to truly get over the top.
Only issue is they spent a whole lot of capital on getting Barlow, so if there’s anything left, you wonder if they’re willing to just spend it all for another forward. And unlike other teams we have already mentioned, Luchanko would probably be playing as a second-line center beneath Ritchie on almost every unit. Not the best fit, but possibly the one where Jett would put up the most points.
Barrie Colts
The Colts are rumored to be in on Luchanko and they are a team that desperately wants to improve and compete with the top teams we have already mentioned. They were in on Barlow, and they are in basically on every top NHL prospect that becomes available in the OHL. So, it just makes sense.
Right now, Barrie has some talent of their own, though. Utah first-rounder, center Cole Beaudoin and Stars prospect Emil Hemming are probably their most talented on the roster — in addition to just other, mid-round NHL prospects like Brad Gardiner and Riley Patterson. But there is a glaring problem in the fact that there isn’t really a game changer in that bunch. A whole lot of solid NHL prospects who should find themselves in the National after a couple seasons cooking in the minors, but no one to really just take control of the game like Luchanko did for Guelph in the second half of last season.
We cannot see any current member of the Colts scoring 100 points, to put it bluntly. But with a very solid supporting cast, Luchanko could almost certainly do that. Barrie seems like the right mix of not being depended on extremely heavily like he would in Guelph (if he stayed) or a place like Windsor, but he can still flourish and feel the right amount of pressure.
Brampton Steelheads
And finally, a team that moved just a couple miles down the road to a better arena but because of city borders they had to change their name from Mississauga to Brampton — that is an extremely OHL story — the Steelheads.
Here is a team that is real interesting. Sort of like the Spitfires, the Steelheads truly have just one player I envision us really caring about. Porter Martone is someone who you will hear about a whole lot leading up to the 2024 NHL Entry Draft (unless you are a prospect sicko and are already reading about the Draft several months in advance). The right winger is projected to go in at the very least, one of the first eight selections and he is showing exactly why so far this season with 12 goals and 25 points in just 11 games. He has everything scouts love. A 6-foot-3 frame that is filled out, leadership after he captained Canada’s Under-18 team last season, and can clearly lead an offense.
Right now, Martone is playing with Kraken prospect Carson Rehkopf as his center and he is certainly nothing to sneeze at. The 2023 second-rounder scored over a point per game last year in Kitchener and should be very good, but he’s not Luchanko and has Luchanko’s potential to really grab a hold of Martone’s game and up the tempo even further.
Luchanko in Brampton would create so many highlights we would struggle to keep up, and maybe that’s just exactly what we want.
Here’s hoping that Luchanko can find a new home eventually, because he just deserves to be surrounded by elite talent like himself.
