ReportWire

Tag: jett luchanko

  • Flyers prospect check: Porter Martone is taking off at Michigan State

    [ad_1]

    The Philadelphia Flyers are well underway, in a season where the team went in looking to take a tangible step forward on the ice. 

    So far, there have been early signs, but at the same time, fans and the organization both are waiting on a number of high-profile prospects to arrive. 

    Here’s a check-in on some of the big ones within the college, junior, and overseas ranks now that we’re a few weeks into the hockey calendar, with a look at the notable names on the Phantoms to come a bit later…

    College

    • Porter Martone has made an immediate impact at Michigan State. The Flyers’ sixth overall draft pick from June put up four points in a two-game set against Northern Michigan last weekend – notching a goal and an assist in each game – and is up to nine points (three goals, six assists) and a plus-6 rating through his first six games as a freshman. 

    Martone’s shot, especially, is looking sharp:

    • Shane Vansaghi, the big, physical second-round pick, is there with Martone at Michigan State. The sophomore winger hasn’t had as prolific a start numbers-wise with just a goal and an assist so far, but a couple of weeks ago against Boston University, he made a goal-line save on a trickling rebound in overtime, where his clear-out immediately flipped into the game-winning goal for the Spartans (don’t mind the mispronunciation in the Sportscenter clip below):

    Dubbed “The Truck” by director of player development Riley Armstrong back at dev camp in the summer, the Flyers have a lot of stock in Vansaghi’s power and the idea that, soon enough, he’ll bring that over to the NHL and be a force within their lineup.

    • Switching to Boston U, fellow second-round Flyers prospect Jack Murtagh is off to a solid start himself as a freshman with two goals and two assists through seven games. 

    His latest goal was last Friday against UConn, when he rifled a shot to the top-right corner on a 2-on-1 look:

    • Second-rounder and big 6’5″ defenseman Carter Amico is also skating for the Terriers, but has been quiet stat-wise with no goals or points through seven games so far. He’s also minus-4. For a blueliner projected to make his living shutting plays down more so than generating them, goals and assists aren’t necessarily the metric to gauge Amico by. The most important thing for him right now, though, is that he is skating and against higher-end competition after missing a major chunk of last season with a broken kneecap.

    • Back up front, Owen McLaughlin has been putting up numbers in Boston with three goals and seven points. He’s a 22-year-old senior and a transfer from North Dakota, and is a center. If he keeps this pace up, and should the Flyers be in need of help down the middle late in the year – or want to throw an audition out there – McLaughlin could end up joining them for a look.

    The 2021 seventh-round pick does still need to be signed, though.

    • Cole Knuble is another center of interest to the Flyers’ development pipeline, and so far, he’s at two goals and five points in six games for his junior year at Notre Dame. 

    The Flyers have been increasingly bullish on Knuble’s outlook since picking him up in the fourth round of the 2023 draft, and at dev camp this past summer especially, he looked a lot more confident and stronger driving the puck through the middle of the ice. This first handful of games only seems just the start of a big year for him in South Bend.

    Juniors

    • Jett Luchanko is going back to Guelph in the OHL, the Flyers announced Monday. The 13th overall pick from the 2024 draft made the team out of training camp for the second straight year, but once again, it was on the nine-game trial run allotted to Canadian junior-drafted prospects. 

    Luchanko was caught between a rock and a hard place development-wise, where there isn’t much more for him to do in juniors but he also couldn’t quite show that he could carry the offensive output necessary yet to justify carrying him as an everday NHLer at only 19 years old – he’s ineligible to play full-time for the Phantoms in the AHL until he turns 20. 

    So, while it wasn’t ideal, the Flyers made the call to send Luchanko back to Guelph, where he can play and likely make a run for Canada at the World Junior Championship, rather than sit for prolonged stretches on the NHL roster and risk going completely backwards in his development. 

    He just had to skate somewhere. 

    • Jack Nesbitt, the 6’5″ center who was always going back to his junior team in Windsor upon his selection this past summer at 12th overall, is having no problem in his plus-1 year for the Spitfires. 

    The 18-year-old has four goals and nine points through 11 games, and looks to be skating a more confident two-way game within his big frame.

    • Matthew Gard, another 6′ 5″ center drafted in the second round out of Red Deer in the WHL, is off to his own hot start with the Rebels. He’s put up five goals and eight points through his first 10 games, which included a laser of an overtime winner to the far post scored last Wednesday:

    • Defenseman Spencer Gill only made it two games into the QMJHL season with Blainville-Boisbriand before suffering an upper-body injury that required surgery, per the junior club’s broadcaster Cédrik Blondin. The 19-year-old will be out for a few months.

    A second-round pick from the 2024 draft, the Flyers liked Gill’s frame at 6’4″ and his physical tool set on the blueline. He’s also gotten stronger over the past two summers since coming into the organization, but getting sidelined for this long is a big setback. 

    Overseas

    • Jack Berglund, a second-round center from 2024 out of Sweden, has been a regularly mentioned piece to the Flyers’ development hopes down the middle by general manager Danny Brière.

    The Flyers have been high on the 19-year-old’s two-way game, but so far in the pro SHL overseas, he’s just holding the line in terms of production with a plus-1 rating and no points through 10 games for Färjestad BK, though that’s not necessarily a bad thing for now.

    • Wrapping up with the Flyers’ almost mythic goalie prospect out of Russia, Yegor Zavragin.

    The 20-year-old Zavragin, in his second season in the pro KHL, is posting a .922 save percentage and a 2.66 goals against average in eight games for SKA St. Petersburg, which includes a 29-save shutout on Sept. 21 against Lada and a 38-save effort on Sept. 29 against Torpedo. 

    Zavragin’s record in goal is only 3-5-0 so far, but up against clear-cut pros over in Russia, the young goalie is holding his own and keeping Flyers fans’ attention while he’s been at it.

    SIGN UP HERE to receive the PhillyVoice Sports newsletter

    Follow Nick on Twitter: @itssnick

    Follow Nick on Bluesky: @itssnick

    Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports

    [ad_2]

    Nick Tricome

    Source link

  • Flyers thoughts: Tyson Foerster, Noah Cates, Bobby Brink never missed a beat, remain their best line

    [ad_1]

    Three games in, and the line of Tyson Foerster, Noah Cates, and Bobby Brink has remained as the Flyers’ best.

    Cates crashed the crease and scored the Flyers’ lone goal in Game 1 down in Florida on a perfectly executed offensive zone faceoff.

    Brink stepped in toward the faceoff circle from off the wall and fired a shot home in Game 2 against Carolina, and had the would-be winner in overtime later on had goaltender interference not waved it away. 

    Then in the home opener on Monday night, back up against Florida, Foerster notched the first goal from drifting down to support Sean Couturier, who slipped him the puck to send him skating in toward the net for a clean shot that made it through.

    At every turn, that combo has made an impact. 

    They haven’t missed a beat coming back from last season – might’ve even gained a step, too – and for a team that’s under a new head coach in Rick Tocchet and still very much trying to iron out the early kinks elsewhere, that’s been huge. 

    Foerster and Cates each have a goal so far, Brink has two, they all have three points and plus ratings, and as a line together, they’ve skated with a 56.25 high-danger chances for percentage, per Natural Stat Trick.

    They haven’t missed a beat, especially so for Foerster, who suffered an infection in his elbow over the summer and wasn’t even sure ahead of training camp if he’d be ready in time to start the season. 

    But he made it, and picked up right where he left off. 

    “Just do the same stuff,” Foerster said. “Just do the same stuff we did last year. Defense first and offense is going to come with the way we play. Dump it in, we get on the forecheck, we have a good forecheck, and we get the puck back. Make plays, and we take it to the net.”

    Sometimes it’s just that simple, but hey, it’s working. 

    A few other thoughts on the Flyers…

    Michkov’s minutes

    There’s been an early focus on Matvei Michkov, but not because he’s been putting up highlights. 

    It’s been the opposite, actually. He’s been quiet, a bit concerningly so, and moreover, he’s been sitting as the initial games have pushed later and later in. 

    Michkov didn’t touch the ice in the overtime loss to Carolina on Saturday, and with Monday night’s home opener against the Panthers still tied pressing further into the third period, the 20-year-old sat tight on the bench.

    He has no goals or points so far, has taken a penalty in each of the first three games, hasn’t skated above 15 minutes in either of them, and has only three registered shots. 

    Tocchet acknowledged earlier in the week that Michkov suffered an offseason ankle injury that hampered his training and left him needing to catch up on his conditioning as a result. 

    Michkov spoke after practice on Wednesday in Voorhees, alongside his usual translator Slava Kuznetsov,  and had no interest in using the injury as an excuse. 

    “That I’m not scoring or making any assists in the last three games, it’s not anyhow connected with the injury,” Michkov said via Kuznetsov.

    But there have been lapses, too. 

    Matvei-Michkov-Flyers-Hurricanes-Bench-NHL-2025.jpgJames Guillory/Imagn Images

    Matvei Michkov has had a slow start to the season.

    On Monday night, for example, Florida was skating down with the puck into the Flyers’ zone within the final minute of the second period. 

    Michkov chased down to backcheck, trying to help take Gustav Forsling away as the passing option on the initial rush, but as soon as the first shot was stopped, he took a wide turn to start trailing up toward center ice, all while the Panthers still had control of the puck. 

    Sam Reinhart scored on a scramble around the goal line seconds later to get the Panthers on the board.

    “He’s just gotta differentiate when is the time to take off and when it’s the time we need him to hang in there,” Tocchet said of Michkov, who did qualify that he believes his game is improving. “That’s the one thing he’s gotta figure out.

    “I get it. He wants to be an offensive player, but you can’t take off when we don’t have the puck.”

    It’s a learning process, Tocchet continued, and for the whole team. 

    “We’re trying to create a culture,” the coach said. “It’s not about one player.

    But for Michkov…

    “He is obviously a player that is a special guy,” Tocchet said. “We gotta hone his talents, but it’s gotta be somewhat in a team game, and he’s willing to do it because I think his last two practices have been great.

    “He did video again today. He came up for us and goes, ‘Coach, I need video,’ and he talked about some other stuff where he felt his legs felt better the last couple days, which is good.”

    So maybe chalk it up to a slow start for now. 

    As for the defensive part, though…

    “Should play more in the offensive zone and be more offensive,” Michkov joked. “Then you don’t have to defend as much.”

    That is one way to do it.

    Built to handle it

    Travis Sanheim has skated some incredibly heavy minutes to begin the year, from 25 minutes at minimum to nearly a half-hour in the case of Saturday night’s overtime loss to Carolina. 

    It’s a lot, but Tocchet has been a fan of Sanheim going back to when they were on Team Canada together in the 4 Nations Face Off last February and trusted him to be able to handle it.

    Sanheim has answered the call without issue. 

    “He works out, he does the right things off the ice, that’s why he can play 30 minutes,” Tocchet said. “The guy came in in unbelievable shape for us. It goes hand in hand. He’s a professional, and that’s why he can play big minutes.”

    That said, neither Tocchet nor the rest of the organization are looking to throw that much at Sanheim from game to game. 

    His usage has been a consequence of the Flyers having such thin defensive depth to begin the season, which wasn’t helped by Cam York going on Injured Reserve when they had to submit their opening night roster. 

    Until they can get York back – Rasmus Ristolainen, too – the Flyers are going to need to find a way to get more out of Jamie Drysdale, Adam Ginning, and Emil Andrae, at least to get by.

    “We gotta develop some guys here to get more minutes off of,” Tocchet said. “We’re in the business of winning, but we’re also in the business of maximizing some players.”

    Travis-Sanheim-Flyers-Goal-Carolina-2025-NHL.jpgTravis-Sanheim-Flyers-Goal-Carolina-2025-NHL.jpgJames Guillory/Imagn Images

    Travis Sanheim has racked up a ton of ice time in the early going.

    Speaking of…

    York just might be ready to come back, though, for the Flyers’ next game at home Thursday night against the Winnipeg Jets.

    He skated through practice in the standard black jersey, and after the Flyers left the ice, Andrae’s name was removed from the roster to indicate that he’s reporting to Lehigh Valley in the AHL, which opens up a roster spot. 

    “It’s day-to-day,” Tocchet maintained of York’s status. “He’s a possibility. We haven’t penciled him in yet.” 

    But the signs are lining up.

    It’s a big year for York, who is looking to bounce back after a rough 2024-25 season and then some after signing a five-year contract extension in the summer. 

    It’s just starting on a bit of a delay.

    Just fire away

    Jett Luchanko has appeared in two games so far, Saturday night in Carolina and Monday night against Florida, skating in a limited 8:49 and then 7:40 of ice time. 

    Just like last season, the 2024 first-round center has a nine-game trial run before the Flyers have to decide between keeping him as a full-time NHLer or sending him back to juniors in Guelph.

    They have seven more games to make a call.

    Tocchet said Wednesday that he likes Luchanko’s speed, yet still, he needs to see the 19-year-old shoot, and not hesitate to do it.

    “He has to start shooting the puck,” Tocchet said. “That’s one thing if he’s gonna get more ice time. I mean, there’s times he has the puck in the middle of the ice and he’s passing the puck at the front of the net. That’s a mental block for him right now…If he would shoot the puck, it’ll actually make him look faster.”

    Jett-Luchanko-Puck-Flyers-Canes-2025.jpgJett-Luchanko-Puck-Flyers-Canes-2025.jpgJames Guillory/Imagn Images

    The Flyers are still deciding what’s best for Jett Luchanko’s development.

    The Flyers are caught between a bit of a rock and a hard place with Luchanko when it comes to his development. 

    He’s too young still to go straight to the AHL, where he could get valuable and consistent pro minutes, but might not be fully ready yet to stick in the NHL, all while having outgrown juniors. 

    Sending Luchanko back to Guelph wouldn’t hurt, but it isn’t ideal either. Keeping him up full time with the Flyers, though, but at the cost of sitting him constantly or only giving him limited minutes unless he suddenly breaks out, that could. 

    “We’ll evaluate as it goes on,” Tocchet said. “I don’t think it’s gonna hurt him for a week or two, but you start talking months and months, yeah, it could hurt the development of a player, 100 percent.”

    They have to be careful here.

    SIGN UP HERE to receive the PhillyVoice Sports newsletter

    Follow Nick on Twitter: @itssnick

    Follow Nick on Bluesky: @itssnick

    Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports

    [ad_2]

    Nick Tricome

    Source link

  • Flyers flash their potential in opening win over Canucks

    Flyers flash their potential in opening win over Canucks

    [ad_1]

    The Flyers’ season opener stretched way late into the night, and in almost typical Philadelphia Flyers fashion – or at least the one fans have become conditioned to over the past decade or so. 

    A slow start, a push to catch up, and then a stalemate through overtime that takes them into the shootout. 

    Philadelphia has seen that script before, numerous times and to varying degrees of frustration and then longstanding apathy, but as Morgan Frost buried the winner at 1:00 a.m. Saturday on the dot back here on the East Coast, the energy about the Flyers felt different from mostly anything seen in years past. 

    They beat the Canucks, 3-2, in the shootout out in Vancouver to take that first game of the 2024-2025 season, and they did it because they were faster. They did it because they were younger – one of the youngest teams in the entire NHL even. They did it because Sam Ersson, going in for the first time as the full-time No. 1 goaltender, looked the part. And they did it because there was a newfound creativity and decisiveness to them, with a power play that finally looked effective and actually was in its first rollout of the year. 

    The Flyers won, this first game at least, because they played in a way they couldn’t before – not last year, and definitely not in the several years prior since leaving that 2020 COVID bubble. 

    They won because they have Matvei Michkov, the offensive phenom on the ice now, and first-round speedster Jett Luchanko, too. They won because Cam York can take on 20 minutes and counting on the blue line while knowing when to sneak down for an opening to unleash a laser of a shot. And they won because a healthy Jamie Drysdale was able to fly up and down the ice roaming with the puck, because Bobby Brink is stronger and another year wiser, and because Tyson Foerster isn’t as hellbent on his defense above all else anymore – he’s going to get down in front of the net to score now. 

    The Philadelphia Flyers, the new Philadelphia Flyers, they’re coming together, and Friday night (into early Saturday morning) was the first show of it, as well as the first result. 

    Back-to-back penalties early into the first period put the Flyers on their heels out of the gate, which let Quinn Hughes and the Canucks – a club that fell just a goal shy of sending the eventual Western Conference champion Oilers home in the playoffs a few months back – go to work. 

    Ersson got tested immediately in goal, but he answered the call, stopping 10 Vancouver shots within the game’s first 10 minutes, including an impressive nab of a Brock Boeser shot from across the crease. 

    A blistering wrister from Nils Höglander in front of the net off of a defensive zone turnover later in the first and then a deflection from Teddy Blueger in the second on an assignment Luchanko lost track of were the blemishes, but the 24-year old Ersson held the line to keep the Flyers in it and give them a chance. 

    He stopped 24 of 26 shots through overtime on Friday night, then 4 of 5 in the shootout, and as the one in the front of a goalie situation that head coach John Tortorella admitted during training camp he wasn’t entirely sure about, Ersson offered an early assurance. 

    “That’s what I thought the key to the game was, Ers just giving us a chance to get our legs,” Tortorella said postgame. 

    They started finding them when Höglander went to the box for holding late into the opening frame. 

    The Flyers’ power play, statistically, was the worst in the league last season at a 12.2 percent conversion rate, and watching at the time arguably made its case worse. 

    They struggled to establish steady cycling in the offensive zone, and even when they did set up camp, it often devolved into circling around without anyone opening up an impactful shooting lane.

    The speed just wasn’t there, neither was the true skill to present a serious threat of scoring, but a couple of new faces and structural changes over the summer can do wonders sometimes. 

    Michkov took in the puck from up high and before the Canucks could even react, he had zipped it down to Morgan Frost who had snuck his way to the front of the net, only getting stopped shy of the tying 1-1 goal on a great stop from Vancouver goaltender Kevin Lankinen on the move. 

    The power play units swapped, Brink, Foerster, and Joel Farabee tried nearly the same sequence, and Foerster put the puck home to knot the score. 

    Everything happened so fast, much faster than anything the Flyers’ power play would’ve done last season, and though they only went 1-for-4 on the man advantage for the night on the whole, the difference in how the power play was operating was night and day – plus, Farabee came a fraction of an angle away from netting another. He knew it, too. 

    But the Flyers pressed on.

    York dropped toward the circles to rifle a puck that found him from behind the net to match Blueger’s goal, 2-2, early into the third, and as the game progressed, both Michkov and Luchanko as the debuting rookies grew increasingly comfortable and involved. 

    By the second period, Michkov started shooting from anywhere, from the sharp angle near-parallel to the goal line and on between-the-legs tries from way in close. 

    Then, past the halfway point of the third with the game still tied, the 19-year old took the puck from the right of the Vancouver net, then made a cut inside and a shot where the rebound had him and Luchanko an inch away from their first NHL points. 

    Michkov went on to play a considerable 18:32 of ice time and Luchanko 14:36. Neither ended up making it on the scoresheet for the night, but as the key faces to the Flyers’ long-term vision, whenever they were on the ice, they were noticeable. They had a hand, at least, in something happening that got the puck going Philly’s way. And at the outset, that’s huge. 

    So is their composure through it all.

    “I thought they looked as calm as ever for guys making their debuts,” Frost told the NBC Sports Philadelphia broadcast after his shootout goal secured the Flyers win. Even throughout the day and over the last couple of days, they’ve been pretty stoic. I don’t know what they were really feeling inside, but they weren’t showing it too much. 

    “And yeah, they’re big parts of the team, and I thought they played really well tonight.”

    There are still 81 games to go, with the next one directly on deck for Saturday night in Calgary, and years’ worth of work beyond that for the organization to get the team built up into the Stanley Cup contender it hopes it can one day be. 

    But the Philadelphia Flyers, the new Philadelphia Flyers, they’re coming together. 

    Friday night was the first show of it.

    Follow Nick on Twitter: @itssnick

    Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports

    [ad_2]

    Nick Tricome

    Source link