Flyers: Luchanko Decision Highlights Team’s Greatest Weakness

Two weeks ago, just prior to the Flyers preseason opener, if you talking about rookies, there was only one player it could be. The fascination and hype surrounding Matvei Michkov only temporarily masked something else that was developing behind the scenes.

When Jett Luchanko was taken 13th overall by the Flyers, you heard terms like “upside play” and “possible reach” in analysis of the pick. It was essentially an afterthought of where the prospect, who just turned 18 in August, would end up playing.

Luchanko turned heads and opened for fans and management alike starting in rookie camp. He was among the top performers there, clearly showing there was more than initially thought on draft night. On the first day of training camp, Flyers head coach John Tortorella even noted that Luchanko would get “games,” indicating more than just a cup of coffee with the team in main training.

Luchanko’s first preseason game was the same day as Michkov’s, when the Flyers opened play against the Washington Capitals, and it’s been far more than just a reward for the first-round pick to remain in the lineup. He’s been a mainstay of the team’s primary training camp roster. 

Luchanko appeared in four of seven preseason games, and as the days of camp started to wind down, the question only loomed further. Could Luchanko make the Flyers out of his first NHL training camp?

All indications are that Luchanko will at least be granted the nine-game trial that junior-eligible players can utilize before they are locked into the NHL roster. The Flyers reduced the roster to 23 players on Friday, and Luchanko remained on the roster.

You could read between the lines on Tortorella’s comments of late of where the 18-year-old stood. 

“He’s had a good camp,” Tortorella said on Tuesday. “The guys that continue to play and get their games are guys that deserve them. He’s getting what he deserves.”

On Friday, prior to the cuts being made official, Tortorella echoed those thoughts.

“It’s no small detail, I just think he has a maturity about him,” Luchanko said. “We know he’s 18, just turned it, but he carries himself in a different way. A bright player, a good 200-foot player, understands that already you can see. We just keep on having discussions on it, and I think deserves where he’s at.”

Usually for an 18-year-old to make an NHL roster, the numbers tend to be the focus. Offensive production is so high in a preseason that it can’t be ignored, the proverbial kicking down the door. Luchanko opened the preseason with a pair of assists in his first game against Washington, then was held off the board in the final three games he played, quite the contrary to Michkov’s first camp with seven points in four games. But Tortorella says that’s not where the focus lies.

“It’s not just a stat of numbers that keeps him in mind,” Tortorella said. “There are so many other things that he’s brought to us here already just with his speed up the middle of the ice, his awareness away from the puck. He’s very mature in that aspect as far as a 200-foot game. He’s killed some penalties. He’s done some really good things.”

So Luchanko is poised to make the Flyers at 18, at least for up to nine games before a final decision has to be made. It can be argued from all sides whether this benefits the player himself or not, and there are cases that can be made for both sides. 

Maybe NHL play will keep him going and the tryout period is enough for him to adjust. Maybe he hits a wall early enough that it becomes abundantly clear he should go back to juniors. 

That’s a discussion for another day, a result that remains to be seen. What is abundantly clear already, with Luchanko seemingly in line for a spot, is what it represents within the Flyers organizational depth.

It was already widely known that the Flyers were thin at the center position. That was highlighted by the Flyers selecting three centers in the first four rounds of the 2024 NHL Draft. Their abundance of picks in the first two rounds of the 2025 NHL Draft would also provide a chance to address this need.

But for Luchanko to essentially already be the third center on the list in the organization, behind Sean Couturier and Morgan Frost, NHL mainstays at this point, speaks to the lack of even NHL-ready talent at center that the Flyers possess. Luchanko has regularly skated on the third line, surpassing the likes of Ryan Poehling and center options like Scott Laughton and Noah Cates. 

“The position certainly comes into play, and Luch is a center,” Tortorella said. “We’re not going to force-feed a young player because he plays a position that I think we need help at, that we need to develop. The biggest thing in why he is still in discussions with us as far as playing in the National Hockey League is he’s a mature kid. 

“It doesn’t worry me, is it too much for him, as far as just stepping into the league. There are going to be decisions made and conversations had about is it too much right now? But as far as being afraid because he just turned 18, I’m not afraid of that, because he has a good maturity about him. The position certainly comes into play. Speed up the middle is so important in our league, and he has it. How he sees the game, how he sees the play away from the puck has given him the opportunity to still be playing with the NHL team in practice.”

If Luchanko’s maturity is as good as the Flyers believe it is, then an extended tryout shouldn’t completely ruin his development, even if this ultimately ends with a return to juniors. But making this decision, primarily due to a positional need so great, shows just how much work remains for the Flyers at the center position. 

Maybe this will be a non-discussion in another few weeks. Luchanko could look completely overwhelmed in the tryout period and make the decision an easy one for the Flyers. But with center being such a big need, to the point where Luchanko even earns the tryout, could also make it that just playing well enough is enough to keep him here for an entire season and put the first year of his ELC into effect.

There is plenty to be excited about with Luchanko. For a pick that looked to be more about upside at 13th overall, Luchanko certainly knocked the door down with his potential, so much so that even a year from now, this decision could have been that much more of a lock. 

Fresh from the draft, though, getting an extended look at an 18-year-old during the building years for the franchise feels like more of a reach. And the Flyers have to hope that it ultimately proves to be the right decision.