PHILADELPHIA — It might all be forgotten quickly. If the Philadelphia Flyers can hang tough in their first two games on the road against Stanley Cup contenders, the Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes, when the regular season opens up next week, training camp will become a distant memory.

But until they officially get underway Thursday against the defending champs in Sunrise, Fla., it needs to be said: The young prospects were underwhelming.

Earlier this offseason, Flyers general manager Daniel Briere voiced his enthusiasm over what he expected to be an influx of young talent arriving in addition to some prospects who are already here. The implication was that competition for the several open spots in the lineup would be compelling.

It really wasn’t. Alex Bump, one of their more hyped prospects both inside and outside the organization, never seemed to pop, going scoreless in the two rookie games against the Rangers as well as his three preseason appearances. His two most memorable moments were getting trucked by Travis Sanheim on his first shift in an intrasquad scrimmage and a blunder at the end of the first period in his only game at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Sept. 27 that resulted in a Bruins goal. Bump was reassigned to the AHL Lehigh Valley Phantoms Tuesday.

Jett Luchanko seems likely to make the team, as the Flyers waived defenseman Dennis Gilbert  Saturday, trimming their roster to 23. On Saturday, in the Flyers’ 4-3 shootout win against a minor-league New Jersey lineup in the preseason finale, he made a nice play in the offensive zone on Travis Sanheim’s late first-period goal, earning the primary assist, but had some rough moments in the defensive zone earlier in the frame.

Sanny’s THIRD of the preseason. 🥵#NJDvsPHI | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/Qbin0F16fs

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) October 4, 2025

But Luchanko didn’t dress in what was the Flyers’ most full dress rehearsal of the preseason Thursday against the Islanders, centered the fourth line with Garnet Hathaway and Rodrigo Abols Saturday and didn’t get a single shift in the three-on-three overtime, signaling that it’s unlikely he will play an important role early on, if he dresses at all.

While Luchanko deserves some leeway because of a nagging groin injury that kept him out of rookie camp and prevented him from ramping up his skating, his refusal to shoot the puck more often — he had just three shots on goal in five preseason games — looks like a significant mental hurdle he has yet to clear. The NHL isn’t the place to do that.

Frankly, this feels like a case of Luchanko getting shoehorned onto the roster by management, which is ironic because a year ago, then-coach John Tortorella was the primary advocate for the rookie center. It may even be time to question that decision, too, considering Luchanko didn’t exactly make a huge statistical leap in the OHL when he returned.

That was always an odd decision by a club that has steadfastly proclaimed it won’t rush any of its young talent, which they identified as a problem under previous regimes. You have to wonder where the 19-year-old Luchanko is mentally at the moment, and how playing a minor NHL role for a few weeks before another potential OHL reassignment is going to affect his overall growth.

Another player who was thought to have potential now looks like an organizational afterthought. Samu Tuomaala, a second-round pick in 2021, was one of the first forwards reassigned to the Phantoms back on Sept. 25. A pending restricted free agent at the end of the season, this camp felt like Tuomaala’s last chance. That he was removed from the main roster so quickly may suggest the Flyers will try to find him a new home.

The competition for the final two spots on the blue line was even more worrying.

Probably by design, head coach Rick Tocchet gave Egor Zamula and Adam Ginning — both 25 years old — ample minutes on Thursday against the Islanders. It did not go well. Zamula continued his distressing camp, including turning the puck over four times in the first 15 minutes of the first period, resulting in a blunt “he’s got to pick it up” assessment from Tocchet after the game. Zamula was removed from the lineup for Saturday’s game, with Ginning and the equally underwhelming Noah Juulsen as the third defense pair.

Ginning, meanwhile, was one of two players — including Matvei Michkov — who erred on Emil Heineman’s game-winning goal with less than three minutes left in the third period Thursday. According to Tocchet, Ginning “was caught in between” Heineman and Anthony Duclair, who set Heineman up for the easy score.

Younger defensemen such as Helge Grans, 23, and Hunter McDonald, 23, didn’t do enough to get long looks from the coaching staff. Grans seemed to be in a prime position to make the roster, as a right shot with size who could have potentially filled the void left by an injured Rasmus Ristolainen. But his back-to-back poor showings in the preseason extinguished his chances.

And then there’s Emil Andrae, who seemed to be settling into an NHL role midway through last season, but never got a long look in camp with a veteran partner. That guys such as Andrae, Grans and McDonald never really pressured any of the players above them on the depth chart was disappointing.

It hasn’t been all bad. Roster lock Nikita Grebenkin is just 22 and does seem to have potential, even as Tocchet has cautioned a few times that the winger still has work to do when it comes to game management and not turning the puck over. That deal with the Maple Leafs for Scott Laughton last March, which included a first-round pick in 2027, is looking better by the day.

Further, some absences didn’t help the competition. The sixth pick in the 2025 draft, Porter Martone, didn’t attend camp after committing to Michigan State University. Oliver Bonk, the 22nd pick in the 2023 draft, has been out for the entirety of camp with an upper-body injury that will take at least another week and a half to heal, per the club. Had those two been participants, perhaps they could have pushed some of the veterans at wing and on defense, respectively.

This is a Flyers team that expects to improve this season. Perhaps the new additions such as Christian Dvorak, Trevor Zegras and Dan Vladar are enough to help achieve that. But the Flyers won’t enjoy real growth — now or in the future — until they get meaningful contributions from their draft picks and prospects. If the past two and a half weeks were any indication, that may not happen in the immediate future.

(Photo: Eric Canha / Imagn Images)