For the entirety of his OHL career, Philadelphia Flyers prospect Jett Luchanko has played on a team that did not surround him with the requisite talent to compete at a high level. This week that changed.
Luchanko has started off strong overall back in the Canadian junior ranks, with 17 points in his first 11 games. However, he’s only scored twice, and his now former team the Guelph Storm still sit seventh in the OHL’s Western Conference. It was shaping up to be another fruitless year for Luchanko, until the Bulldogs sent 17-year old Layne Gallacher and a plethora of draft picks to the Storm in order to acquire the Flyers prospect.
Luchanko makes the OHL’s best team even better
Luchanko will join a powerhouse Bulldogs team that sits atop the OHL’s Eastern Conference. They haven’t lost once in regulation through 23 games, and they look poised to make another run at winning the OHL Championship for the first time since 2021-22. Brantford is stocked with first round draft prospects like Ben Danford, Jake O’Brien, and Adam Jiricek, to go along with other NHL draftees like Marek Vanacker, Owen Protz and Adam Benak. This truly has the potential to be an OHL superteam, and they should contend for the Memorial Cup title if everything continues on the path it currently seems to be on.
For Luchanko, it remains to be seen who he will play alongside, but whoever it is, it will almost definitely be an upgrade from his current situation in Guelph; the Bulldogs have a staggering six players averaging over a point per game, with five of that contingent playing on forward. The Bulldogs have averaged over five goals per game over their last 10 contests, and are always a threat to unleash an offensive barrage at any moment.
While he has always played a very responsible, 200-foot game even on bad teams, Luchanko has struggled to find his shooting boots, whether it be in the NHL, or back in the junior ranks. The attributes to score at a high level are there, and his speed and hockey sense should theoretically lead to him getting more chances than other players, but the confidence to believe that he can beat a goaltender straight up still seems underdeveloped.
But with Brantford there is no doubt as to what he is expected to do, he is a vanity piece for a contender looking to go all in, and part of that is continuing to be an offensive force along with his usual smart play. The Bulldogs acquired Luchanko because they think he can be the piece to put them over the top, and the possibility of lining him up alongside O’Brien and Vanacker on a fully loaded first line, or even putting him with projected top-20 pick Caleb Malhotra, is a tantalizing thought. That is without getting into what should be a monstrous power play unit, with a bunch interchangeable pieces that are all very high-skill options. Points should be much less hard to come by all across the board.
This could very well be the jolt that kickstarts a developmental process for Luchanko that has somewhat stalled as of late, largely because of circumstance. But that variable is finally being removed from the equation, and Luchanko should be freed up and allowed to finally play on a team that is the clear aggressor for the first time in his junior career.
It also sets up the potential for a tasty OHL playoff matchup between Luchanko’s Bulldogs, and Jack Nesbitt’s Windsor Spitfires, with both teams currently sitting at first in their respective conferences. There’s a long way to go until then, but the fact that Luchanko now has a chance to make it happen is only a positive.