In a slight surprise to some fans, the Philadelphia Flyers have reassigned rookie center Jett Luchanko to their OHL junior hockey team, the Guelph Storm.

Luchanko, 18, made the Flyers’ opening night roster this season and appeared in four games, recording zero points.

The London, Ont., native played 14:36 ​​and 17:00 in his first two NHL games against Vancouver and Edmonton, respectively, before his ice time dwindles at 12:14 and 12:23 in his last two games against Seattle and Vancouver. Luchanko has also failed to register a shot on target in each of his last two games.

So why did the Flyers now decides to send Luchanko back at OHL?

“We think it’s the best thing for his development. I’ve said it from Day 1: It’s not about how good Jett can be this year, it’s thinking about three, five, seven years down the line,” Flyers GM Danny Briere said during a news conference on Saturday. “It’s hard sometimes to be patient because you want to make the best possible team right away. But we think for his development and to have the best Jett Luchanko, he needs to go play a lot of minutes. He has to learn to be “the guy”. I think he has a very good chance to play for Team Canada at the World Juniors; this is another amazing experience for him.

“It’s important for him to play heavy minutes, to be ‘the guy’, to learn how to lead the attack, to be a leader in his team. We’re not trying to create a fourth-line center, we think it has more advantages than that.”

Briere’s assessment closely aligns with what Luchanko’s representatives believed before 2024 NHL Draft. Luchanko is already a world-class skater with good hockey sense, a flair for the game and strong defensive capabilities.

The question, however, was whether or not he had more offense in him.

“We told Jett we want him to push the limit and not just try to play it safe,” Briere continued. “We want him to push his limits and find out how far he can get away with his crime without being a liability.”

Guelph Storm head coach Cory Stillman will coach Luchanko for the first time this season after replacing Chad Wiseman.

The good news for the Flyers is that Stillman played for head coach John Tortorella during Tortorella’s time with the Tampa Bay Lightning. In his first year with Tampa Bay in 2003-04, Stillman set a number of career highswith 25 goals, 55 assists and 80 points as he and Tortorella won the Stanley Cup together.

“I talked to his coach today, his junior coach, Stiller, who I coached in Tampa. We had a great conversation about what we’re looking for from him,” Tortorella said of Luchanko and Stillman after the Flyers’ 7-5 win over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday afternoon. “He should feel so good about what happened, about his time with us.

“He should be proud of himself. EJ told me, because he lived with EJ, he brought clothes for 10 days. He didn’t think he would be here this long. He should be proud of himself. His parents should be proud of him. He was taken out of the lineup not because of his play. We had discussions and were pretty much in favor of him coming back before the nine games.”