The Philadelphia Flyers sent prospect Jett Luchanko back to the OHL’s Guelph Storm after over three weeks of trying him out in the NHL for the second season in a row. With the end result being the exact same, as the 19-year-old heads into his final year of junior hockey, Flyers general manager Danny Briere had some questions to answer.

Luchanko started with the Flyers last season largely because then head coach John Tortorella was infatuated with his speed and defensive work. That team had virtually no one stable enough to play down the middle and the former head coach wanted some energy at the center position — so much so that Sean Couturier was the fourth-line left wing and Noah Cates was a healthy scratch while Luchanko was in the lineup to open last season.

Fast forward to this year and the expectation, or hope, was that Luchanko would push for a full-time role in the NHL and we would see potential improvement from the young centerman. It was a significant time for him — Luchanko could only either play with the Flyers or go back down to the OHL. No college hockey due to him being under contract, and no AHL since he hasn’t turned 20 years old yet and the new ruling of 19-year-olds playing in that league isn’t taking place until next season.

It was a crucial call but on Monday morning and after four games played, the Flyers officially sent the center prospect back to the OHL.

Flyers just want Luchanko to play as much as possible

While speaking with the media shortly after the team made the official announcement, Briere explained his initial thought process as to why he sent Luchanko back. It really came down to just opportunity.

“Very simple. We want him to play high minutes,” Briere told the media, via PHLY’s Charlie O’Connor. “We’ve liked what we’ve seen, he could have stayed here, he showed that he can play, but we want more than that for him in the long run. We felt at this point, it was time for him to start playing high minutes.”

It certainly is true that Luchanko did not look out of depth — it was the same scenario last season when he was just 18 years old. The London, Ont. native played a total of four games and while he didn’t do much to fill up the stat sheet when it comes to individual production — one single shot on goal and two shot attempt — visually, there were good things and some things he had to work on, like most players in the NHL and especially teenagers.

Now, the question has to be asked: Why not just give him more minutes in the NHL? Luchanko was averaging just 8:58 TOI. There’s a way you could have him playing much more like you want him to. Briere says it’s basically not that easy, and he had to earn those minutes.

“If (Jett) had come in and really forced our hand, forced us to find a way (to get him) in the top nine, it might be different. But we didn’t feel he was quite ready for that role,” he said.

As controversial as it can be, some teams, like the Flyers clearly, want their young players to show that they have earned their opportunity. In Luchanko, it felt impossible from our point-of-view for him to get more minutes than the centermen the Flyers have already.

Sean Couturier is off to a very good start, so he’s not playing above him. Christian Dvorak has been locked in as the “responsible forward” for Trevor Zegras and Matvei Michkov, so he’s above Luchanko. And Noah Cates has been one of the best two-way forwards in the entire league in the first weeks of the NHL season. You can even lump in the aforementioned Zegras as a center playing better than Luchanko was during his Flyers stint.

If the season started and one or more of those players were playing poorly, there would have been a scenario where Luchanko played higher up in the lineup and in that top nine. But amassing just two total shot attempts and not being extremely strong in possession of the puck, is not a way to do it.

Possible conditioning stint in the AHL?

There was a path that the Flyers could have taken to get him more minutes with the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms in a quasi loophole.

If the Flyers were to healthy scratch the 19-year-old for five consecutive games, they would be able to then send Luchanko on a two-week conditioning stint down with the Phantoms. It would be a way for him to at least do something while being able to keep him on the roster.

Briere said that the Flyers thought about it and it could have been an option, but it was just not the right call.

“Yeah, we looked into that,” Briere said. “But it was another week of him sitting around, not allowed to play him. And after that, you’re only allowed two weeks (in the AHL), & you’ve got to keep him on your (NHL) roster. … That complicates things. There’s all kinds of little things like that, that were coming into play that just made it difficult. So we figured it’s best just to send him back, have him go play heavy minutes and get ready for his junior year and hopefully the World Juniors.”

As Briere mentions, it’s a lot of moving parts for not a whole lot of results. Since Luchanko was already a healthy scratch for the Flyers’ last two games, he would need to sit out through November 1, when the Toronto Maple Leafs visit Philadelphia. He would then be able to start his conditioning stint for the next Phantoms game on November 5 against the Bridgeport Islanders. Starting that two-week clock would take him through the November 16 matchup in Hershey for the Phantoms.

A total of five AHL games played. Five games and it would take Luchanko not being in an NHL game for almost an entire month. That’s no way to truly develop a player, especially when you think he just needs to play as much as he can.

So, the inevitable happened and now Luchanko is back to the OHL and is preparing for his final year of junior hockey. And, like Briere said, he can hopefully be ready to lace up for Team Canada at the World Juniors this year and play a more prominent role as the experienced 19-year-old version of himself.

In the end, yeah, it makes sense. Probably made sense to just do this last month, too.