First Round Flyers Recap
Unable to trade up at the 2024 NHL Draft, despite multiple attempts to move up to various spots ( including the fourth overall pick) the Philadelphia Flyers ultimately ended up moving down from the 12th overall selection to the 13th pick.
The Flyers, reportedly, were targeting one of Russian winger Ivan Demidov or center Cayden Lindstrom if able jump into the top four or five. If able to select a little later, they appeared to be enamored of London Knights defenseman Sam Dickinson. The San Jose Sharks undercut the Flyers on the latter front, as the traded up to the 11th overall pick and selected Dickinson. One spot early, huge-framed Russian defenseman Anton Silayev was selected by the New Jersey Devils. Highly regarded but undersized WHL center/winger Berkly Catton was taken by the Seattle Kraken at the eighth overall pick.
Picking 12th overall, among their available options, the Flyers had the opportunity to tab either highly skilled Denver defenseman Zeev Buium -- coming off an NCAA championship with the Pioneers and WJC gold medal with Team USA -- or Finnish two-way center Konsta Helenius. Instead, the Flyers moved down one spot via a pick swap with the Minnesota Wild. In exchange for the 12th pick, the Flyers picked up the 13th selection and a 2025 third-round selection.
The Wild promptly took Buium (who had widely been pegged as a probably top 10 pick) with the 12th pick. At pick 13, the Flyers went for Guelph Storm center Jett Luchanko. I'll discuss Luchanko in depth in the next section. With the 14th pick, Buffalo selected Helenius.
The Flyers were hopeful that they'd have some options they felt were first-round worthy fall to them with the 32nd overall pick (originally belonging to the Florida Panthers). There were rumblings that they liked Norwegian defenseman Stian Solberg, Russian center Yegor Surin, and USNTPD defeneman E.J. Emery. They'd have also potentially taken USTDP winger Cole Eiserman if he kept falling. Even a week ago, word from organizational sources was that the Flyers did not plan taking Eiserman in most any scenario with the 12th overall pick. However, he WAS an option under certain trade-down scenarios or if he somehow slipped to the end of the round.
As the rest of the first round played out, the options disappeared. The Flyers got to a point where they didn't see enough separation between what was left in the first round to the types of prospects available in the second round. The Flyers traded the 32nd overall pick to the Edmonton Oilers for a conditional first round pick in either 2025 or 2026.
Assessing Luchanko
When I pulled together my
2024 Mock Draft, I did not expect Berkly Catton to make it out of the top 10 in the Draft. I had him going eighth to Seattle. That was, in fact, exactly where he went.
However, I also didn't expect defenseman Zeev Buium to slip out of the top 10. I liked Finnish center Konsta Helenius quite a bit. I expected the Flyers to go with one or the other at the 12th overall pick, once Sam Dickinson went off the board at 11th.
Flyers general manager Danny Briere explained afterwards that the organization already has a several young defensemen of Buium's basic profile -- highly skilled, averaged-sized at most, power play deployment -- specifically citing NHLers Jamie Drysdale and Cam York as well as prospect Emil Andrae. The Flyers preferred a forward they internally had rated comparably.
That player, to the Flyers, was Luchanko. Having bypassed Helenius twice, Philly clearly had Luchanko higher in their internal rankings. Time will tell if they made the right decision. The Flyers might still have been able to take Luchanko a few picks later -- it appeared that Briere was discussing another trade down -- but it would NOT have been that many picks later.
To put it another way: If the Flyers had been able to find a deal where they gained another asset and moved down to 16th, would they still have been able to pick Luchanko? Maybe. He was a major second-half riser in some scouting circles. Some projections had him in the middle of the first projections, although the majority placed him somewhere in the latter one-third. (Note: I had him to tie Islanders at 20th overall because he fits the profile of the exact type player that the big boss everyone in his organization has to please -- Lou Lamoriello -- has often tended to like). Whether he'd actually have been the Isles' guy at 20th overall, I don't know. Others had had him in the latter one-third of the first round.
Luchanko is a very good playmaker and an excellent skater. He is a high-motor type of player, tenacious forechecker, willing backchecker and defensively responsible. He isn't tall but he's projected to become sturdy enough physically to remain at center (although a move to wing may be another option down the line). He hasn't shown much finish yet: definitely a much better set-up guy than goal scorer that this stage of his development.
Luchanko was one of the youngest players available in the 2024 Draft class. Born August 21, 2006, he made the minimum age cutoff by three weeks. His Guelph Storm team was an also-ran -- 31 points behind first-place (and eventual champion London) -- but qualified for the playoffs before getting curb-stomped in a four-game sweep by the Soo Greyhounds in the first round. Guelph got outscored, 18 to 9, over the four games. Luchanko's play was one of the few bright spots for the Storm.
Luchanko also had a very good U18 Worlds for Team Canada, playing a tenacious all-around game while also posting seven points (3g, 4a) in seven games. With Guelph, he became a force on the power play in the second half of the season. Overall, he posted 33 power play points (3 PPG, 30 PPA) among his 74 points in the regular season. For his Draft-plus-one season, Luchanko is expected to take another significant step offensively.
In the short time, I can fully understand why Flyers fans might have been disappointed that Philly didn't select a more widely hyped player. But some of the knee-jerk reactions have been way over the top.
1) Luchanko wasn't THAT much of a reach, if at all. There was an undercurrent of Top 20 or so buzz about him the last few months, beyond what you'd find in some rudimentary Google search or perusing a single Draft preview.
2) Luchanko is still just 17 years old. He won't even turn 18 until shortly before Rookie Camp. There will not be a clear picture on what the Flyers actually have in him for the next three to five years. Even then, he'll still be a few young player with potential to develop further. We'll see in time.
3) Right now, Helenius is much closer to being NHL ready in the near future that Luchanko. While that would have been my personal preferred pick at 13th, I wouldn't pretend to say that Luchanko won't catch and surpass Helenius and other players when we move along several seasons into their respective development. Perhaps Helenius peaks early and what you see know is relatively what you'll get when he's 24, 25, or 26 years old. The floor right now is higher, but that's right now. I don't know if Luchanko's ceiling will or won't be equal or higher as he continues to develop.
4) The 2024 Draft was not a deep on one of natural centers who have all the coveted S tools (size, skill, speed, sense) working for them right now. Luchanko has 3 of the four tools to build from and he isn't SO undersized that it's not something he can work with. In fact, there's no reason why he wouldn't end up about the same size as Mike Richards (5-foot-11, roughly 200 pounds in his physical prime) or Peter Forsberg (5-foot-10, 183 pounds in his Draft year, a generously listed 6-foot, 205 pounds in the NHL).
No, I'm not predicting that Luchanko will have an NHL career comparable to Richards or Forsberg. What I'm saying is that size doesn't jump out as an asset for Luchanko -- unlike the 6-foot-3, 210-pound Lindstrom -- but it isn't a long-term concern, either. He'll be of strictly average size, especially for a center. But that's OK, as long as the rest comes along as hoped.
Don't rush to judgment. Give it time. It's the nature of the beast in scouting and development.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»