VOORHEES, N.J. – It is hockey’s age-old quandry.
Keep a kid like Jett Luchanko on the roster to get some valuable NHL experience, albeit with limited ice time, or send him back to junior and let him play big minutes to prep him for the rest of his pro career.
That’s the decision the Flyers made on Monday. For the second straight year, Luchanko was returned to the Guelph Storm of the Ontario Hockey League.
Luchanko made headlines last season when, at age 18, he made the opening night roster.
The experiment lasted four games before he was returned to the OHL. This time the trial lasted just as long. He could have played up to nine games before going back but general manager Daniel Briere just didn’t see the point.
“Very simple, we want him to play high minutes,” Briere said in leading off a media session at the Flyers Training Zone. “We like what we’ve seen. He could have stayed here and showed that he can play. But we want more than that for him in the long run”.”
Luchanko was mostly playing on a fourth line, which only gave him about eight minutes of playing time per night. Generally the fourth line concentrates on physical play and protecting the defensive zone. That’s not what Luchanko is cut out to be.
“We felt at this point it was time for him to get high minutes,” Briere said. “More of an offensive role. Getting back to playing power play, facing the top opposition on the other team on a nightly basis.”
Besides that, there was little chance Luchanko was going to move up through the line structure at center, with veterans Sean Couturier, Christian Dvorak (or Trevor Zegras) plus Noah Cates pretty secure in their positions.
“We also want to prepare him for the World Juniors (at the end of December),” Briere said of Luchanko. “It’s tough. If he’s playing seven, eight minutes a night for the first three months of the season, send him to the World Juniors and they expect to play him 15, 18, 20 minutes, it’s a really tough adjustment to change like that.”
Did Luchanko make any progress over last season’s brief trial with the Flyers?
“We saw more of a progression at the end of the year in Lehigh Valley,” Briere said. “He was banged up this summer, had to miss the rookie camp (in early July). Even I didn’t like his first week of camp (in early September).
“Then I thought he stepped it up. Got better as the games went on. At Lehigh, he might have been our best player down the stretch and into the playoffs. That was encouraging. That was from heavy minutes in junior.”
Briere said he wasn’t worried about Luchanko coming out of the gate a little slower this fall. The GM is confident Luchanko will find the range again with increased ice time.
There shouldn’t be any lingering disappointment over getting sent down so quickly.
“He’s got strong character,” Briere said. “We’re not worried about that. Strong leadership qualities so we’re not worried about that. He’s got a good team around him.”
In his eight NHL games so far, Luchanko hasn’t registered a point yet but that’s not a concern.
“It’s about developing his game,” Briere said. “We know he’s reliable. We want to see him take some chances and see how far he can push his game on offense.
“He’s a big part of our future. We’re excited about him. We just want to try to develop him the right way. He’s going to play in the NHL. There’s no doubt about that.”
Luchanko played nine regular-season games and seven playoff games with the Phantoms last spring. He didn’t register a goal in either stint but he did post six assists in the Calder Cup playoffs.
“We need patience, we need to give him time,” Briere said. “His job is to find a way to break through.”
Coach Rick Tocchet saw Luchanko for the first time this go-round. He gave the young player a positive review.
“Is it better to stay for a little bit, practice, play some games (with the Flyers)?” Tocchet said. “You want players to play through mistakes but there’s certain things where he just has to play a lot. You can’t do it up here.”
By this time next year, Luchanko could very well be a fixture in the Flyers’ lineup.
The way Philadelphia is handling his current status is probably the best course of action.
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