Jett Luchanko will be playing for the top OHL team the rest of the season.
The Flyers’ prospect was traded from Guelph to Brantford on Monday in exchange for Layne Gallacher and four OHL draft picks. Luchanko is headed to a Bulldogs team that hasn’t lost in regulation and leads the league at 18-0-5.
Flyers general manager Danny Briere is pretty familiar with Luchanko’s new coach Jay McKee. The two were teammates for parts of three seasons with the Sabres.
This is a good opportunity for Luchanko’s development in his final season of junior hockey. The 19-year-old center will be surrounded by a ton talent and could have a long playoff run. He’s also vying to play for Team Canada again at the IIHF World Junior Championship.
The 2024 first-round pick has already played eight games for the Flyers over the last two seasons.
“You can tell he thinks the game well,” Bobby Brink said in October. “I mean, he has natural speed, skating kind of comes effortless for him. Two things that you need to be able to do in this league are skate and think the game. He has got the right base.”
Luchanko is a pass-first pivot who had two goals and 15 assists in 11 games for the Storm, a rebuilding team with its eyes set on the future as it gears up to host the 2027 Memorial Cup.