Flyers prospects Jett Luchanko, Alex Bump getting taste of playoff hockey with AHL’s Phantoms

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ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Jett Luchanko didn’t get an opportunity to play much high-pressure hockey this season. His junior team, the Guelph Storm, finished in last place in its conference, while Team Canada’s stay in the World Junior Championships not only didn’t last very long, but Luchanko only skated in a depth role — something that was frustrating for the Philadelphia Flyers brass.

But Luchanko’s getting a taste of it now. The AHL Lehigh Valley Phantoms are in a dogfight with the Hershey Bears, the back-to-back defending Calder Cup champions, with a decisive Game 5 set for Sunday evening. Hershey took games 1 and 4, while the Phantoms captured games 2 and 3.

“It’s great to be able to play some meaningful hockey,” Luchanko said Friday after the Phantoms lost 6-4 at PPL Arena, squandering a chance to close out the series and move on. “Didn’t get to do that at the end of my (junior) season. Everyone’s been great here, really welcoming. It’s been a fun time so far.”

Friday, though, wasn’t all that enjoyable. The Phantoms dug themselves a 3-0 first-period hole, and although they scored twice early in the second to get back into it, the Bears quickly regained control.

After dispatching the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the first round by winning the first two games of a three-game series, Luchanko and the Phantoms are finding out what’s made Hershey so formidable the past two seasons. That is, the games are much tighter-checking than they were in the first round, while the increased physicality has been evident, particularly when the whistle-happy referees seemed extra vigilant in an attempt to keep Friday’s game from getting out of hand. There were a pair of third-period fights and countless scrums after the whistle, as each team tried to set the tone for Sunday’s series finale.

Yes, this felt like a true playoff game in every sense.

“Yeah, it’s tough — they’re a really good team, tight-checking team,” Luchanko said. “It’s fun to be able to go up against them and kind of see what they bring.”

Competing in this sort of environment is what Flyers general manager Daniel Brière and his staff hoped would materialize when they reassigned guys like Luchanko and fellow prospect Alex Bump to the Phantoms as soon as they could. Luchanko joined on March 27, while Bump arrived on April 15, just days after Western Michigan won an NCAA National Championship.

More often than not, they’ve been on the same line, too. Luchanko and Bump connected for some highlight reel scores in the series against the Penguins, but playing the Bears has been a different story. Luchanko has one assist through four games in the series, while Bump is scoreless.

Cap Scratch Fever#RallyTheValley | #LVvsHER | #LVPhantoms pic.twitter.com/44X0vjIcpN

— Lehigh Valley Phantoms (@LVPhantoms) May 4, 2025

Still, the experience of going through it is valuable.

“Means the world for them, because that’s playoff hockey,” Phantoms coach Ian Laperrière said. “You don’t have much room out there, you have to do the best that you can with what you have. I think it’s only gold for those two kids for their careers down the road to experience that. The Wilkes-Barre series was a little bit more wide open. This one’s tighter. That’s real hockey.”

Luchanko, drafted 13th by the Flyers last year and surprisingly made the team out of camp, finished his OHL season with 56 points (21 goals, 35 assists) in 46 games. It was a decent total, considering that Guelph was among that league’s weaker teams, and won’t even turn 19 years old until Aug. 21.

The message from the Flyers after he was reassigned back to his junior club in October — following four scoreless games with the Flyers, including one in which he made a good account of himself against Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers — was, according to Luchanko, “to work on all areas of my game and more offensively, as well. That was my goal when I went back: was try to hold onto pucks more, things like that. Trying to work on my shot, as well.”

That’s an ongoing process, and will likely continue to be. Luchanko is still looking for his first goal with the Phantoms in 15 total regular-season and playoff games headed into Sunday, to go with his eight assists.

The 21-year-old Bump, on the other hand, already has three goals in eight Phantoms games, including two in the series against the Penguins, both set up by Luchanko. He’s shown flashes, too, of what was his best attribute in college — getting pucks on net.

Alex Bump to Jett Luchanko, and back to Alex Bump.

Can you say F-U-T-U-R-E, #Flyers fans? @InsideAHLHockey pic.twitter.com/qoLFzOe54Q

— Tony Androckitis* (@TonyAndrock) April 24, 2025

In the Phantoms’ 3-0 Game 1 loss to Hershey, Bump registered eight of Lehigh Valley’s 26 shots on goal. Even if none of them got past the goaltender, that was exactly what Laperriere wanted to see from the 2022 fifth-round pick that has blossomed into one of the Flyers’ top prospects.

“He’s a shooter,” Laperrière said. “He scored two goals against Wilkes-Barre, great shots. Against a team like Hershey, I want pucks on net because it creates some chaos. They’re man-on-man, so you want to create chaos. It’s no secret, put pucks on net — and he does that.”

Said Bump: “Shot first mentality over here, so, yeah, that’s usually what I’m thinking in the O-zone.”

Of course, things move a little more quickly in the AHL than they did in college. Bump is realizing against the Bears. He had just one shot on goal in Game 4 and none in Game 3.

“College, I felt like I could hang onto the puck a little bit longer,” Bump said. “I can’t out there anymore, which I’m definitely going to have to adjust to, because I loved hanging onto it in college,” he said. “Just quicker, faster thinking — make the plays quicker.”

Both Luchanko and Bump will be players to watch when the Flyers reconvene for training camp in September. Among the forwards on the Phantoms’ roster, the two of them may have the best chance of cracking the opening night lineup.

In the meantime, they’ll keep getting a taste of what pro hockey is like when the temperature is turned up.

“That’s why I’m here, so I’m not really walking in blind next year, and I have some experience under my belt,” Bump said.

Said Laperrière: “They can’t get frustrated. They have to battle through it. They will get hit because they’re good players. They have to learn from it and get better.”

(Photo of Jett Luchanko: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)

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