March 18, 2026
Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Porter Martone has been netting a lot of goals over in East Lansing.
The Flyers of today are still hanging on to try and stay in this season's playoff race.
The Flyers of tomorrow, meanwhile, are progressing and trying to make waves to be a part of the next fight, maybe sooner rather than later.
Here's a check-in on a handful of Flyers prospects, leading off with the big one who everyone has their eyes on...
Martone scored a tying power-play goal for the Spartans during Saturday's Big Ten Tournament semifinal, getting to the open ice and firing away on a pass across the crease that zipped right to his stick.
Power play goal for Porter Martone makes it 2-2! pic.twitter.com/VM0QqD6Qgn
— Michigan State Hockey (@MSU_Hockey) March 15, 2026
Top-seeded Michigan State eventually lost to Ohio State in overtime, but the Spartans' record and No. 1 seeding out of the Big Ten still puts an NCAA Tournament run ahead of them, which will give Martone more of a stage to shine on.
He has pretty brightly already, with a 24-goal freshman season that has shown a clear willingness from the 19-year-old winger to take the puck in and shoot.
The Flyers don't have a pure – and albeit somewhat selfish – goal scorer on their roster right now who is looking to shoot first instead of pass, and that lack of finish ability has been one of the continued sore spots on their roster from night to night, especially on what's been an abysmal power play.
But last season's sixth overall draft pick might just be their answer to that problem, and could be on his way to Philadelphia very soon.
Vansaghi's numbers don't exactly jump off the page, but his powerful game looks much better in action, and against Ohio State on Saturday, he did tee up on a one-timer to score the opening mark.
Shane Vansaghi gives us a 1-0 lead on the one-timer! pic.twitter.com/CgYQ1ewGG5
— Michigan State Hockey (@MSU_Hockey) March 14, 2026
Important dates to keep in mind for Martone and Vansaghi: The NCAA Men's Hockey Championship Game is April 11. The Flyers' last two regular-season games form a home back-to-back against Carolina and then Montreal on April 13-14.
It's a tight window, but not an unprecedented one for college prospects to sign their entry-level contract and get an NHL game or two in before the year wraps. Martone is likely headed that way, and maybe Vansaghi, too.
Fresh off his deadline trade to the Flyers, Jiříček was assigned immediately to the Phantoms down in the AHL and probably couldn't have had a worse introduction over in Allentown, when the big defenseman tripped over trying to handle the puck in his zone, which led straight to a turnover and a Charlotte goal.
Our Olympian kicks things off! pic.twitter.com/lPMeH1Edsw
— Charlotte Checkers (@CheckersHockey) March 8, 2026
Give him credit, though, he made up for it later when he sniped in a tying goal on the power play late to force overtime.
POWER PLAY TIE!!#LVvsCLT | #LVPhantoms pic.twitter.com/V9YEptGHZJ
— Lehigh Valley Phantoms (@LVPhantoms) March 8, 2026
Consider the 22-year-old a project, though.
Jiříček, the former sixth overall pick from the 2022 draft, is a big, right-handed defenseman with a pretty strong shot at 6'3" and 209 pounds. But his development has been all over the place between Columbus and then Minnesota, and the Flyers' goal now, after they swapped Bobby Brink one-for-one for him with the Wild, is to get his trajectory on track so that he can be a key part of their NHL blue line in a couple years' time.
The Flyers have likened the process they're undergoing with Jiříček as similar to the one that gradually improved Jamie Drysdale's game over the past few seasons. That said, with Jiříček starting in the AHL, his timeline seems like it's going to require a bit more patience.
Luchanko worked up to just shy of a point-per-game pace with his new junior team in Brantford, but then got hit with an upper-body injury that has kept him out since the end of February and looks like it will continue to until the Bulldogs reach the OHL Playoffs – this per Bill Meltzer of the Flyers' website and Hockey Hot Stove.
Jett Luchanko remains week-to-week with an upper-body injury. He's expected to be ready for the OHL playoffs and perhaps a couple games late in the stretch run.
— Bill Meltzer (@billmeltzer) March 16, 2026
He was managing injury through development camp back in the summer, too, did make the Flyers out of the preseason but couldn't stick, and went back to juniors only to seemingly go backward a bit and with the established problems in his game – mainly, his reluctance to just shoot the puck when he has a look – persisting.
The Flyers are far from considering their 13th overall pick from just two drafts ago a bust, but this season has seemed to have shaken a lot of confidence in the 19-year-old's true potential among fans.
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Nesbitt, the Flyers' second of their two first-rounders last summer at 12th overall, has stayed just above the point-per-game pace with Windsor, but hasn't particularly wowed in his plus-one draft year.
But he's been on to something since the start of March.
In the Spitfire's five games this month so far, Nesbitt has three goals and six assists (nine points) with a plus-7 rating, which included a two-goal night against Erie on Tuesday.
The lanky 19-year-old, at 6'5" and 185 pounds, is part of the center pipeline the Flyers have been slowly trying to build up, and him getting down the stretch of the junior season should be an encouraging sign that he's on his way to becoming one of the key future pieces to it.
Knuble and Powell both signed their entry-level contracts with the Flyers in the past week, and were each sent to Lehigh Valley in the AHL to finish the season with the Phantoms.
Knuble, a fourth-round pick from 2023 who signed a two-year deal, left Notre Dame after a down junior season for both himself and the program. The 21-year-old has steadily progressed as a center in the past few years, however, and that was evident during the Flyers' development camp scrimmages back in the summer, when Knuble excelled at driving the puck up through the middle of the ice.
Powell, a fifth-round pick from 2024 who signed a three-year pact, is a winger who skates hard and can hit even harder. He bounced around from Ohio State to Oshawa in juniors and then back to college with Arizona State in the past couple years, and can bring a jolt to any line he's thrown on to. Still, the 21-year-old's game is in need of much more refinement, and plenty of minutes with the Phantoms to do it will be that next step.
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