October 28, 2025

Flyers prospect check: Porter Martone is taking off at Michigan State

Checking in on Porter Martone, Shane Vansaghi, Jack Nesbitt, and other Flyers prospects across the college, juniors, and overseas ranks.

By Nick Tricome
PhillyVoice Staff

Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Porter Martone is doing just fine at Michigan State.

The Philadelphia Flyers are well underway, in a season where the team went in looking to take a tangible step forward on the ice.

So far, there have been early signs, but at the same time, fans and the organization both are waiting on a number of high-profile prospects to arrive.

Here's a check-in on some of the big ones within the college, junior, and overseas ranks now that we're a few weeks into the hockey calendar, with a look at the notable names on the Phantoms to check out HERE.

College

• Porter Martone has made an immediate impact at Michigan State. The Flyers' sixth overall draft pick from June put up four points in a two-game set against Northern Michigan last weekend – notching a goal and an assist in each game – and is up to nine points (three goals, six assists) and a plus-6 rating through his first six games as a freshman.

Martone's shot, especially, is looking sharp:

Porter Martone makes it 1-0 Spartans in the first! Spartans get back to even strength and take the lead just seconds later. pic.twitter.com/4xQTGYRc5K
— Michigan State Hockey (@MSU_Hockey) October 24, 2025

• Shane Vansaghi, the big, physical second-round pick, is there with Martone at Michigan State. The sophomore winger hasn't had as prolific a start numbers-wise with just a goal and an assist so far, but a couple of weeks ago against Boston University, he made a goal-line save on a trickling rebound in overtime, where his clear-out immediately flipped into the game-winning goal for the Spartans (don't mind the mispronunciation in the Sportscenter clip below):

Checking in at #1 on this morning’s SportsCenter Top 10 plays!

Shane Vansaghi ➡️ Ryker Lee ➡️ Matt Basgall pic.twitter.com/q4JpStWPFS
— Michigan State Hockey (@MSU_Hockey) October 19, 2025

Dubbed "The Truck" by director of player development Riley Armstrong back at dev camp in the summer, the Flyers have a lot of stock in Vansaghi's power and the idea that, soon enough, he'll bring that over to the NHL and be a force within their lineup.

• Switching to Boston U, fellow second-round Flyers prospect Jack Murtagh is off to a solid start himself as a freshman with two goals and two assists through seven games.

His latest goal was last Friday against UConn, when he rifled a shot to the top-right corner on a 2-on-1 look:

MIH: BU GOAL - Jack Murtagh buries home a breakaway chance after Malte Vass chipped the puck down the ice for him.

Watch on ESPN+: https://t.co/NY6VCl7vtf @hockey_east | @espn #GoBU pic.twitter.com/axCiZosQx2
— BU Game Day (@BUGameDay) October 25, 2025

• Second-rounder and big 6'5" defenseman Carter Amico is also skating for the Terriers, but has been quiet stat-wise with no goals or points through seven games so far. He's also minus-4. For a blueliner projected to make his living shutting plays down more so than generating them, goals and assists aren't necessarily the metric to gauge Amico by. The most important thing for him right now, though, is that he is skating and against higher-end competition after missing a major chunk of last season with a broken kneecap.

• Back up front, Owen McLaughlin has been putting up numbers in Boston with three goals and seven points. He's a 22-year-old senior and a transfer from North Dakota, and is a center. If he keeps this pace up, and should the Flyers be in need of help down the middle late in the year – or want to throw an audition out there – McLaughlin could end up joining them for a look.

The 2021 seventh-round pick does still need to be signed, though.

MIH: BU GOAL - Owen McLaughlin rips one home on the power play and BU has a two-goal lead.

Watch on ESPN+: https://t.co/NY6VCl7vtf @hockey_east | @espn #GoBU pic.twitter.com/0ZalhLJjw6
— BU Game Day (@BUGameDay) October 25, 2025

• Cole Knuble is another center of interest to the Flyers' development pipeline, and so far, he's at two goals and five points in six games for his junior year at Notre Dame.

The Flyers have been increasingly bullish on Knuble's outlook since picking him up in the fourth round of the 2023 draft, and at dev camp this past summer especially, he looked a lot more confident and stronger driving the puck through the middle of the ice. This first handful of games only seems just the start of a big year for him in South Bend.

Cole Knuble gets his second of the night for @NDHockey ☘️

📺: Peacock pic.twitter.com/KYO8sI65vA
— Big Ten Hockey (@B1GHockey) October 17, 2025

Juniors

• Jett Luchanko is going back to Guelph in the OHL, the Flyers announced Monday. The 13th overall pick from the 2024 draft made the team out of training camp for the second straight year, but once again, it was on the nine-game trial run allotted to Canadian junior-drafted prospects.

Luchanko was caught between a rock and a hard place development-wise, where there isn't much more for him to do in juniors but he also couldn't quite show that he could carry the offensive output necessary yet to justify carrying him as an everday NHLer at only 19 years old – he's ineligible to play full-time for the Phantoms in the AHL until he turns 20.

So, while it wasn't ideal, the Flyers made the call to send Luchanko back to Guelph, where he can play and likely make a run for Canada at the World Junior Championship, rather than sit for prolonged stretches on the NHL roster and risk going completely backwards in his development.

He just had to skate somewhere.

• Jack Nesbitt, the 6'5" center who was always going back to his junior team in Windsor upon his selection this past summer at 12th overall, is having no problem in his plus-1 year for the Spitfires.

The 18-year-old has four goals and nine points through 11 games, and looks to be skating a more confident two-way game within his big frame.

A couple @NHL prospects connect🤝

Liam Greentree feeds Jack Nesbitt for a beauty and the @SpitsHockey take the lead!#GoKingsGo | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/2yfwZEOMGK
— Ontario Hockey League (@OHLHockey) October 25, 2025

• Matthew Gard, another 6' 5" center drafted in the second round out of Red Deer in the WHL, is off to his own hot start with the Rebels. He's put up five goals and eight points through his first 10 games, which included a laser of an overtime winner to the far post scored last Wednesday:

🚨 MATTHEW GARD CALLS GAME 🚨@RebelsHockey | @NHLFlyers | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/0K091YT35Z
— Western Hockey League (@TheWHL) October 23, 2025

• Defenseman Spencer Gill only made it two games into the QMJHL season with Blainville-Boisbriand before suffering an upper-body injury that required surgery, per the junior club's broadcaster Cédrik Blondin. The 19-year-old will be out for a few months.

A second-round pick from the 2024 draft, the Flyers liked Gill's frame at 6'4" and his physical tool set on the blueline. He's also gotten stronger over the past two summers since coming into the organization, but getting sidelined for this long is a big setback.

Overseas

• Jack Berglund, a second-round center from 2024 out of Sweden, has been a regularly mentioned piece to the Flyers' development hopes down the middle by general manager Danny Brière.

The Flyers have been high on the 19-year-old's two-way game, but so far in the pro SHL overseas, he's just holding the line in terms of production with a plus-1 rating and no points through 10 games for Färjestad BK, though that's not necessarily a bad thing for now.

• Wrapping up with the Flyers' almost mythic goalie prospect out of Russia, Yegor Zavragin.

The 20-year-old Zavragin, in his second season in the pro KHL, is posting a .922 save percentage and a 2.66 goals against average in eight games for SKA St. Petersburg, which includes a 29-save shutout on Sept. 21 against Lada and a 38-save effort on Sept. 29 against Torpedo.

Zavragin's record in goal is only 3-5-0 so far, but up against clear-cut pros over in Russia, the young goalie is holding his own and keeping Flyers fans' attention while he's been at it.

A star in the making ⭐️

Yegor Zavragin stole the show against Minsk this evening, pulling off several incredible stops as he tallied 34 saves!#hcSKA pic.twitter.com/1NgGybeKfH
— SKA Ice Hockey Club (@hcSKA_News) September 19, 2025

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