A healthy Jett Luchanko is hoping to use rookie camp as a springboard ahead of a pivotal season for his Flyers future
Luchanko, 20, hasn't quite kicked on as the Flyers expected since the team selected him 13th overall in 2024. Can better health and more stability help him get back on track in 2026-27?
ALLENTOWN — Jett Luchanko carried the puck up the ice with Alex Bump and Cole Knuble on his flanks during Friday’s drills. He passed it to Bump on the right side and drove to the net as the winger sent the puck back to the crashing forward for a scoring chance.
Later in the first practice of the Flyers’ rookie camp at PPL Arena in Allentwon, the right-handed center cut across the slot and sent it past the glove of 2026 second-round pick Martin Psohlavec for a goal.
Known for his high hockey IQ and his speed — “His name is Jett so he should be fast,” as Lehigh Valley Phantoms coach John Snowden joked — the knock on the Flyers’ 2024 first-round pick has been his lack of goal scoring. Part of that is down to his low shot total, as he’s put only 21 shots on goal across a combined 25 American Hockey League and NHL regular-season and playoff games. Last year he managed just seven goals in 38 regular-season games in the Ontario Hockey League split between Guelph and Brantford
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“I think the one thing that we all talk about is we want to squeeze that offense out of him. Obviously today seeing him shoot the puck and scoring goals from a distance in some different scenarios, that’s a huge plus,” Snowden added.
Snowden, who is expected to have the recently turned 20-year-old in Allentown for the 2026-27 season, wants to see Luchanko take chances this weekend in the Rookie Series games against the New York Rangers. He wants to see the speedy center’s offensive game, which he believes he has, bubble to the surface.
But the reality is, just having Luchanko on the ice is a big step. After putting on a show two years ago while skating with Matvei Michkov at the Phantoms arena, the centerman missed development camp and rookie camp last year due to a groin injury.
He also missed development camp this summer after undergoing a procedure on his core approximately a month prior. According to Flyers assistant general manager Brent Flahr, the issue had been lingering for a year and a half.
“Yeah, I feel good, ready to go for sure, and just excited to take part in his camp,” said Luchanko, who got back on the ice soon after development camp and looked like he was in mid-season form on Friday.
The hope was that having the summer to train and prepare would help Luchanko’s confidence. After back-to-back seasons of four-game stints in the NHL before returning to juniors, he is a full-time pro this year. Luchanko has yet to register a point in the NHL but has nine assists in 16 total AHL contests and skated in the Flyers’ final playoff game last season. It was an eye-opening experience for the then-19-year-old as he learned firsthand the intensity the Stanley Cup playoffs bring.
“We’re excited to see him turn pro. I think that’s great. … Stability will probably be a good thing for him,” Flyers general manager Danny Brière told The Inquirer at the beginning of June. “... The big thing with Jett is he has an elite skill in skating that is almost unmatched from anyone in the organization, other than maybe Owen Tippett. So that’s always going to have a lot of value for anybody to have a player like that.”
This season, the hope is he will take the next step, and with a shortened preseason for the Flyers, the time for him to showcase his skills is now.
At development camp, Luchanko spoke about using his speed and attacking with the puck. He noted that over the summer, every time he got on the ice, he put intent into working on those skills. He flashed that on Friday.
“He’s a great player. He can fly; he’s a really good skater, so [he] open up more space for me and he can make plays,” Bump said of Luchanko. “So just got to be ready and in the slot or be ready for when he can make a play and just put them in the back of the net.”
Reading between the lines
Although Snowden wouldn’t commit to line combinations or defensive pairings —not everyone can or will play both games this weekend (7 p.m. on Saturday and 5 p.m. on Sunday and streamed on the Flyers website) — there were some interesting looks.
Outside of Luchanko, Bump, and Knuble together on a line, Denver Barkey — who said he put on a few pounds over the summer — and Porter Martone paired up with Phoenixville native Owen McLaughlin. Like Bump, Martone and Barkey are expected to make the Flyers roster. Martone noted that Brière and his agent, Paul Capizzano, spoke, and they together decided that participating in rookie camp was the best thing for him to get him ready for Game 1 of the Flyers’ season.
Alex Čiernik and Noah Powell, who will be in Lehigh Valley, had 2025-second rounder Matthew Gard between them; Gard will head back to Seattle of the Western Hockey League before attending Michigan State next fall.
Ilya Pautov, a sixth-round pick in 2024 making his North American debut, skated with fellow Phantoms Riley Thompson and Devin Kaplan. Defenseman Ty Murchison, who could push for an NHL spot, was paired with first-year pro Spencer Gill, and second-year pro Oliver Bonk was with fellow London Knight and the Flyers’ first-rounder in June, Maksim Sokolovskii.
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