PHILADELPHIA – Every training camp has its share of difficult roster decisions to make but this year seemed a bit more challenging than others for the Flyers.
On Friday, forwards Cole Knuble, Jett Luchanko and Jacob Gaucher, along with defenseman Oliver Bonk, were assigned to the AHL Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
During the first intermission of Saturday’s Flyers-Washington final preseason game at the Xfinity Mobile Arena, Flyers general manager Daniel Briere discussed the progress made by some of his top prospects in training camp.
Like the 2025 training camp, when prospects like Alex Bump and Denver Barkey pushed the vets, that seemed to be the case in the 2026 camp.
“I think the exciting part is, some of the young guys are starting to push again,” Briere said. “We had that push last year with Barkey, Bump and (Porter) Martone late in the season. I really liked the training camp.
“Knuble, Luchanko as well, they’ve shown they’re not too far off. We know Oliver Bonk is knocking on the door. That’s the fun part. We do have a lot of guys who are pushing but at the same time, with a short training camp, it’s tough. So we decided to stay with the status quo.”
Briere expects his young players to continue the push in Allentown.
“The message to them was keep doing what you’re doing,” Briere said. “You’ve done everything you could have done. Keep developing your game.”
At Saturday’s pre-game skate at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees, N.J., coach Rick Tocchet also said the moves were made pretty much because there were no real vacancies in the starting lineup.
But that doesn’t mean the quartet should feel discouraged in any way. Tocchet made it clear any of these youngsters could be a call-up if the Flyers suffer an injury or two along the way.
Both Knuble and Luchanko played in the first three preseason games and left a good impression.
“You get in a situation where there’s not many jobs open,” Tocchet said. “But that doesn’t mean they’re not pushing, that doesn’t mean something could happen in a week, a month. You have to be ready.
“They obviously had good camps. Cole is pushing people. It gives us a lot of options if things happen. All you’re doing is creating better options for the general manager. It improves the depth of the organization, it’s nice to see.”
What should the prospects be working on with the Phantoms?
“I would say consistency,” Tocchet said. “That’s the next level. I think the hardest part for the young guys who are trying to make the NHL is stack consistency.”
Young players can perform well for a couple games and then their performance might drop off a bit.
“You call a guy up, he does well that game,” Tocchet said. “And then after a couple you see the dropoff. Can you hold that consistency? That’s the stuff I want to see them work on.”
Knuble, son of former Flyers great Mike Knuble, was a force in a couple of the preseason games and the coaches made note of this.
All the young hopefuls will be studied extensively on video.
“They had a hell of a camp and it doesn’t stop now,” Tocchet said. “You can’t take your foot off the gas when you go to the minors because it’s going to be hard down there, too. It’s not easy. That’s the hardest thing, too. When you feel that ‘I’ve done enough to be an NHL player.’ Then you go down there and you let your foot off the gas. You have to be careful of that.”
>Working on habits
Tocchet was asked what he was looking for in the Flyers’ final preseason game.
“I would say good habits,” the coach replied. “I get the preseason but the one thing with this team is we talked about the stuff we needed to improve on last game. It’s knocking the rust off again and stacking a good game today.”
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