Philadelphia Flyers prospect Jett Luchanko showed why he’s one of the most impactful players in the OHL on Friday night.
Friday night treated us to a whole lot of Philadelphia Flyers prospects proving their worth in their respectable leagues all over the world. But one that popped out as a single performance, was Jett Luchanko making sure everyone was reminded about what he can do and how he can just take over a game in the OHL.
Much has been written about Luchanko and his situation. He’s played in the NHL probably earlier than he should have and the expectation was raised but the freshly-turned 19-year-old center did not have his game tuned enough to be something more than a fourth-line center to start this season for the Flyers. So, the Flyers sent Luchanko back to the OHL’s Guelph Storm and the top prospect is back playing on a not-so-good junior team with not a whole lot of offensive support.
But that hasn’t stopped the London, Ontario native from producing at a high level in the OHL. On Friday night, in an 8-5 drumming of the Windsor Spitfires for the Storm, Luchanko scored a goal and earned three assists for a four-point night that demonstrated exactly what he needs to do in his final year of junior eligibility.
And on one of his assists, Luchanko put all his high-end attributes to good use to create something that only really the best junior players are capable of doing. While on the power play, Luchanko took a pass while in motion through the neutral zone, swiftly entered the offensive zone and put every single Windsor penalty killer on their heels, giving defenders just milliseconds to react and try to play against a player who is already behind you. And with that speed, he easily drew a whole lot of attention to then give his teammate a wide-open net to score on.
While it’s not some display of elite puckhandling or a laser of a shot like some high-end sniper prospect, Luchanko had the confidence to know that the Spitfires can’t handle his speed and how aggressive he is while skating downhill. The Flyers 2024 first-round pick can just race past players and be the first to the puck, and make use of it.
Even on his goal it’s there. In a shorthanded effort, Luchanko beats a Windsor skater to the puck after Guelph won possession back in their own end and then managed to score on a quasi breakaway. It’s something that we saw happen so often with a player like Travis Konecny on the penalty kill during the 2023-24 Flyers season when they scored a billion shorthanded goals by honing in their aggressiveness.
And it wasn’t just during the points earned that Luchanko was doing this but all night long. Since he returned back to Guelph, he’s been doing exactly what is needed and that’s tuning his offensive game to an amount that can be somewhat translatable to the NHL. While playing with the Flyers, Luchanko seemed to just try to keep his head above water and not make many mistakes, so fans were largely disappointed seeing their first-round pick and top prospect just make the easy plays and even occasionally lose possession in a bad area of the ice; so those moments stuck out like a sore thumb.
But in the OHL, Luchanko is bringing his top-end speed and playmaking ability to turn out defensive schemes and prove to be one of the most impactful players in that league. Especially considering that he doesn’t have much help around him.
With this four-point night, Luchanko now has 10 points in the six games since he returned to Guelph. His 1.67 points per game makes him tied in sixth among all OHL skaters as of Saturday morning, but what is even more impressive is no teammate is even around him. Looking at the leaderboard and you see two Barrie Colts and two Brantford Bulldogs in the top five, two Sudbury Wolves in the top 10, three Flint Firebirds in the top 15, three Owen Sound Attack skaters in the top 16 — basically, if there’s a player there that is scoring at a high rate there’s a teammate by them and they are helping each other do that.
Not for Luchanko. The next-best Guelph Storm skaters are Carter Stevens, a 2026 NHL Draft prospect, and Jaakko Wycisk, a 2027 NHL Draft prospect, tied with 0.93 points per game. That ranks them tied for 58th in the OHL. Luchanko is on an entire island offensively. Just the fact that no one else on his team is at a point per game while he has 10 in six, is impressive.
We haven’t even mentioned the reason why this game was somewhat significant, too. It was a battle of two top Flyers prospects, the
two prospects in the OHL as Luchanko faced 2025 first-rounder Jack Nesbitt.
Nesbitt had an alright showing. He managed to score a goal off a wild netfront tip that trickled in behind the Guelph netminder to open the scoring for Windsor and he kept his production alive as he’s scoring at a 1.13 points per game rate with seven goals and 18 points in 16 games. His night wasn’t on par with Luchanko’s but it was still a solid overall showing from him.
Plus/minus isn’t something to take wholeheartedly, but in an 8-5 loss where he played first-line minutes, Nesbitt came out of that game with a plus-1 rating and was one of only two Spitfires to even be in the positives.
Luchanko might have gotten the better of him this time around, but we know that the younger Flyers prospect is dying to see this intraorganizational collision happen once again to try to get the better of him with his 6-foot-5 frame. And it’s happening soon enough. Next Sunday, on Nov. 23, the Storm will be visiting the Spitfires.
Maybe both Flyers prospects will just score five points each.
Nathaniel Lowe is expected to be cut loose by the Red Sox this week. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)AP
The Red Sox have some roster cleanup due this week, with Tuesday marking the date by which teams need to add eligible prospects to their 40-man rosters to protect them from the Rule 5 draft and Friday representing the annual non-tender deadline for arbitration-eligible players. Don’t expect Boston to clear a roster spot by cutting bait with a homegrown former All-Star starter, though.
At this point, Boston is unlikely to non-tender injured righty Tanner Houck, multiple sources said Monday. With a 40-man roster crunch coming, there was some thought that cutting bait with Houck was possible due to his current situation. Houck, who took home $3.95 million in 2025, is projected (by MLBTradeRumors’ widely used model) to take home the same salary in 2026, but is expected to miss most if not all of the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in August. Considering the 2027 season is in jeopardy due to labor tensions and Houck is set to hit free agency after that year, the possibility existed that the Red Sox could non-tender (release) Houck into free agency to save a bit of money knowing he won’t be ready to pitch for most of 2026. But sources indicate the Red Sox plan to tender him a contract.
It’s unclear if the sides have talked about a creative long-term deal. Tendering Houck a contract would keep him under club control ahead of negotiations to avoid arbitration and set a 2026 salary later in the winter.
By Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET, teams must add eligible prospects to their 40-man rosters to protect them from being poached in next month’s Rule 5 draft. The Red Sox, who have a full 40-man roster, don’t have a long list of candidates but are expected to make at least a move or two. Right-handed prospect David Sandlin is a virtual lock to be added, requiring at least one 40-man roster spot to be cleared. Lefties Shane Drohan and Hayden Mullins, righties Yordanny Monegro (injured) and Jedixson Paez and outfielder Miguel Bleis are among the other potential Rule 5 candidates in the organization. If the Red Sox want to make sure any of those players aren’t taken in the Rule 5 draft, they can add them. Doing so would require spots to be cleared.
Any roster spots that need to be cleared for prospect additions need to be opened simultaneously Tuesday, which is a day when small trades are usually made throughout baseball. Therefore, the Red Sox could get a jump on the Friday non-tender deadline (set for 8 p.m. ET) by moving on from players four days early. The non-tender date represents an opportunity for teams to cut bait with arbitration-eligible and pre-arbitration-eligible players and send them into free agency. The Red Sox, unlike in previous years, could be busy on non-tender day.
The most obvious non-tender candidate on the roster is first baseman Nathaniel Lowe, who is projected to earn $13.5 million in 2026. That mark represents much more than what he’d get on the open market after a down season that included him being cut by the Nationals. Lowe will almost certainly be lopped off the roster but could re-sign at a lower rate as he tests the open market. Boston is anticipating the healthy return of Triston Casas next season and is looking to upgrade the first base position via free agency or trade.
The Red Sox have seven other arbitration-eligible players and are certain to retain Kutter Crawford, Romy Gonzalez, Triston Casas and Brennan Bernardino at their low projected numbers. Connor Wong, who is projected to make $1.6 million in 2026, is expected to be tendered after Craig Breslow gave him a vote of confidence last week. Cooper Criswell already agreed to a one-year, $800,000 deal for 2026, removing him from non-tender consideration.
In addition to Lowe, the Red Sox could cut bait with some younger players on the roster. Righty Josh Winckowski (projected to make $800,000) is a candidate to be cut from the roster, as is lefty Jovani Morán. Tough roster decisions might be made with the utility group of Vaughn Grissom, David Hamilton, Nate Eaton and Nick Sogard later in the winter but for now, those players are projected to be safe.