In an interesting new twist, top Philadelphia Flyers center prospect Jett Luchanko is no longer the captain of his junior team, the OHL Guelph Storm.
That distinction now belongs to forward Charlie Paquette, a 19-year-old who was drafted 222nd overall by the Dallas Stars in the 2025 NHL Draft back in June.
Additionally, Guelph also announced that defensemen Quinn Beauchesne and Rowan Topp would wear the ‘A’ for the Storm, which means Luchanko isn’t included in the team’s leadership group at all.
The timing of all this is interesting, considering there was an uproar – a brief one, to be clear – when we had the brief false start on 19-year-olds being allowed to play in the AHL this season.
That isn’t the case, so the fear for Flyers fans, and perhaps the Flyers themselves, is that they would have to put up with another year of NHL or bust with Luchanko.
The 2024 first-round pick showed his stuff in a brief AHL cameo last year with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, too, scoring three assists in nine regular season games and adding six more in seven postseason contests. That’s the unfortunate part.
But, nobody would be as vehemently against Luchanko returning to the OHL if he was on a better team than the storm, like Denver Barkey and Oliver Bonk’s London Knights last season.
One nice hypothetical landing spot for Luchanko, should the Storm trade away the prized Flyers prospect to rebuild, is the Windsor Spitfires.
That roster features fellow Flyers prospect Jack Nesbitt, and returnees like Liam Greentree, Ilya Protas, A.J. Spellacy, and top 2026 draft prospect Ethan Belchetz.
That alone is plenty of talent to surround Luchanko and help him hone his offensive game for another year without throwing him fully into the deep end at the NHL level. It’s not to say he can’t swim, because he probably can, but we haven’t seen that one way or the other.
Any Luchanko trade talk at this time is purely speculation, but the coincidences are starting to line up in favor of a move that benefits him and the Flyers.
After that, regardless of any trade, it will be time for the AHL, and, later on, the NHL.
