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:
• 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:
• 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.
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.
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 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.
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