In a move that felt like it was a long time coming, the Guelph Storm from the Ontario Hockey League traded Philadelphia Flyers prospect Jett Luchanko to the Brantford Bulldogs for Layne Gallacher, 2 future second round picks, a future third round pick, and a future fifth round pick.
For Guelph, it was a move that needed to be done with Luchanko bound for the professional ranks next season and the team having won the hosting rights for the Memorial Cup in 2027. The Storm were able to accrue draft picks, which should help considering they’re currently 11-11-2-0 through 24 games and are 7th in the Western Conference.
As for Brantford, they’ve added a key offensive weapon to a team that is off to a scintillating 18-0-4-1 start to the season, spearheaded by this summer’s 8th overall pick, Jake O’Brien. The Seattle Kraken product has stormed to a league-leading 40 points in 21 games, which includes 9 goals and 31 assists.
Additionally, Minnesota Wild prospect Adam Benák has 13 goals and 38 points, Chicago Blackhawks prospect Marek Vanacker has 21 goals and 32 points, St. Louis Blues prospect Adam Jiříček has 24 points from the back-end, and draft-eligible Caleb Malhotra is sitting with 29 points.
Luchanko started the season with the Flyers again but found it difficult to traverse the professional ranks before being sent back to junior hockey. It’s unfortunate that the new rule allowing one 19-year-old per club from the CHL to play in the AHL isn’t in effect until next season because Luchanko is too good for the junior ranks, but not yet ready for the NHL.
Nevertheless, being sent back allowed him to develop his offensive game a little more, and before being traded he had scored 17 points in 11 games, which included 15 assists. The London, Ontario native was a on a torrid run in recent weeks with 10 assists over his last 6 games, including a 5-assist night against Owen Sound.
Now with the Bulldogs, who haven’t lost a regulation game yet, Luchanko can play with higher-end talent for the rest of the season and look to cap off his junior career with an OHL Championship and Memorial Cup, like fellow Flyers prospects Denver Barkey and Oliver Bonk did last year with the London Knights.
It’s been an interesting run for Luchanko thus far in young career that started with his productive improvement of 15 goals and 60 points in 22 more games played between his rookie season in 2022-23 to his draft year in 2023-24.
He was expected to be a middle-to-late first round selection but the Flyers felt it was an opportunity they couldn’t pass up when they selected him 13th overall – after having initially trading down from 12th with Minnesota.
In a shortened season last year, Luchanko went back to Guelph after surprisingly starting out the year with the Flyers, where he scored 21 goals and 56 points in 46 games. He also represented Team Canada at World Juniors and scored 1 goal in 5 games as a bottom-6 forward for a team that mysteriously left off a lot of great young talent en route to a 5th-place finish.
The first rounder also finished out the season with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, where he added 3 assists in 9 regular season games before looking a lot more comfortable in the postseason with 6 assists in 7 games.
If Luchanko can get off on the right foot with the Bulldogs, he could find himself on Team Canada yet again, but this time around the pool of players to pick from is going to be loaded.
From top 2026 draft prospect Gavin McKenna, to his new teammate Jake O’Brien, to Flyers prospect Porter Martone, Canada is expected to take a loaded team to Minnesota to avenge last year’s failures. However, Luchanko’s experience and off-the-puck skills can be the driving forces into making the team.
All eyes will be firmly entrenched on how Luchanko finishes out the season as he will officially turn pro full-time next year. Whether that’s with the Phantoms or Flyers remains to be seen, however if he can showcase more aggressiveness on the offensive side of the puck and start looking to shoot more, there’s a good chance he wins out a roster spot for the third time in as many years.
