VOORHEES, N.J. — The Flyers ended Jett Luchanko’s audition Monday.

The club sent the 19-year-old prospect back to his junior club Guelph. The 2024 first-round pick played four games for the Flyers, but he was skating on the fourth line and hadn’t suited up in a week.

Very similarly last season, Luchanko returned to the OHL’s Storm after four games.

The Flyers could have played Luchanko five more games before burning the first year of his entry-level contract. He’ll get big minutes with Guelph and have a chance to play for Team Canada again at the IIHF World Junior Championship.

“It’s about him playing some heavier minutes and to keep developing his game,” general manager Danny Briere said Monday. “We know he’s reliable defensively; what we want to see from him is take some chances and see how far he can push his game on offense. That’s what we’d like to see from him. Look, he’s a big part of our future, we’re excited about him. We just want to try to develop him the right way.”

Luchanko is not eligible to play in the AHL for the Flyers’ affiliate Lehigh Valley until after his OHL season ends.

“It sucks because he’s in that mushy [middle],” head coach Rick Tocchet said Monday.

The speedy center played 8:58 minutes per game with the Flyers. He went scoreless with one shot and a minus-3 rating.

“You want players to play through the mistakes, but there are certain things that he just has to go and play a lot,” Tocchet said. “You can’t do it up here. … More decisive with the puck, more shooting mentality, use his speed offensively, not just defensively. These are reps.

“Would it be better with him in Lehigh playing 10, 12, 15 games and running the show down there? Yeah, but because of the rules, it is what it is. So he has to go somewhere where he can just get settled and play. That’s our thought process.”

Luchanko dealt with a groin issue during the summer, which forced him to miss development camp in July. The Flyers held him out of rookie training camp last month for precautionary reasons. Because of the time missed, he had a slow start to main camp and the preseason.

“I didn’t like his first week of camp,” Briere said. “He needed a week to kind of get going, then I thought he stepped it up. He got better as the camp went on.”

The Flyers liked the way Luchanko played when he joined the Phantoms in the spring last season. He had three assists in nine regular-season games and six assists in seven playoff games.

“He was pretty impressive,” Briere said. “He played really well, he was arguably our best player down the stretch and into the playoffs, so that was really encouraging to see.”

Luchanko’s two biggest strengths are his speed and smarts. In the future, the Flyers will look for him to have more of an attack mode offensively.

“He’s going to play in the NHL, there’s no doubt about that,” Briere said. “Now, how high does he get? That’s really up to him. But it’s in there. The speed alone is going to scare a lot of teams eventually when he gets more comfortable, when he gets more assertive out there.

“Believe me, I’ve been part of it, it took me a while to feel comfortable enough to make those plays. So I know exactly what he’s going through, it takes time. From our end, we need patience, we need to give him time to find that comfort. On his end, his job is to find a way to break through.”