Training camp came and went, and so did the preseason after Thursday night's exhibition finale against the New Jersey Devils' taxi squad, but Jett Luchanko never got sent back to Guelph. 

The Flyers' 13th overall draft pick from this past summer is still with them, and with the way things seem to be leaning, he might actually make the NHL roster to start the season. 

Heading into Thursday, head coach John Tortorella said the plan for that last preseason game at the Wells Fargo Center was to roll out a few Flyers veterans, but that the work during the morning skate in Voorhees would shift to practicing as "an NHL group."

"We need to work on some systems," Tortorella told the media on Wednesday from the Flyers Training Center.

The next morning, Luchanko was out there skating with the NHL group – on a third line centering Joel Farabee and Bobby Brink, per NBC Sports Philadelphia's Jordan Hall. 

"I think one guy who has stood out with pace, and I don't think has really been affected too much is Luchanko," Tortorella said during his availability. "I think he continues to skate and I asked him today how's his legs? He said 'I feel pretty good.'

"Maybe that's the youth, I don't know, but he's hung in there really well."

Important to note there: Tortorella was asked by a reporter about how captain Sean Couturier had been holding up through a rigorous camp. He brought Luchanko up on his own accord.

So that has to be a good sign for the 18-year old, right?

"At the end of the day, it's just hockey," Luchanko said after camp practice back on September 25. "When you go on the ice, it's business as usual."

And to his credit, he's skated like he belongs.

Luchanko only has a couple of assists through the preseason, but his speed up the middle and early priority on checking have kept him noticeable, and clearly, have had Tortorella's attention.

"It's not just a stat or numbers that keep him in mind," Tortorella said earlier in the week on Tuesday. "There are so many other things that he's brought to us here already, just with his speed up the middle of the ice, his awareness away from the puck, he's very mature in that aspect as far as a 200-foot game. He's killed some penalties, he's done some really good things. Does it go into goals and assists? Sometimes. Sometimes it doesn't, but there are still really good plays he's made, so we'll continue to evaluate and see where we go.

"We haven't gone into what that roster is going to be," Tortorella added at the time. "But he's still in the picture, for sure."

That has to be a good sign, right?

Now look, if Luchanko does make the Flyers out of camp, that doesn't necessarily mean he'll stay with the team and be a full-time NHLer from here on out.

Clubs are afforded a nine-game trial window to give their junior prospects a look at the NHL level without starting that respective player's entry-level contract, but approaching the 10th game, they have to decide on whether to keep the prospect as a roster player or send them back.

Couturier got that look with the Flyers as an 18-year-old back in 2011 and stuck with the team. Owen Tippett got one, too, when he was a Florida Panthers prospect in 2017, but got sent back to juniors and then got stuck in their development pipeline up until he was traded to Philly in 2022.

The likelihood for Luchanko, should he make the roster, is that he'll get a handful of NHL games in for the experience, then go back to Guelph with a to-do list of things to work on over the course of the junior season to bring to camp next summer. 

Would that help or hurt his development long term? It could go either way, but for a prospect coming in who was generally viewed as being a couple of years off at least from the NHL roster, he's seemingly passed a lot of tests the Flyers have thrown at him and could be much closer to officially skating in the orange and black than originally thought. 

And that has to be a good sign, right?

A few other Flyers thoughts from the past couple of weeks...

Don't mess with Matvei

Matvei Michkov is the Flyers' new star, and sooner or later, an opposing skater was going to try and take liberties with him. 

Boston's Billy Sweezey was the first to step up, pinning Michkov to the boards with a few extra shoves well after the puck was gone during the first period of the September 28 home exhibition against the Bruins. 

Michkov shoved back and broke loose. Sweezey gave him a quick stick tap on the shin pads asking for a fight. Couturier stepped in immediately to accept the challenge instead. 

The Flyers' captain drew the line right then and there: Mess with Michkov, you answer for it.

"Not only him, I think anyone," Couturier said afterward. "I think we gotta make sure we don't get pushed around and stick up for each other, and yeah, I thought that guy was trying to maybe take a little too much advantage of him."

Michkov went on to score the tying goal in the second period and then the overtime winner to beat Boston, 3-2, in front of the home crowd. 

The 19-year old rookie wasn't fazed by anything. He was protected, and he just kept playing.

"What I liked about him is he just kept going," Couturier added. "Next couple shifts, the rest of the game, he was going hard to the net, battling hard to the whistle, and obviously, I think maybe getting a little under their skin, but that's what you want to see. You don't want to see him back off."

First in line for the blueline?

The Flyers' defense is pretty much set going in between Travis Sanheim, Cam York, Jamie Drysdale, Nick Seeler, Rasmus Ristolianen, Egor Zamula, and veteran Erik Johnson. 

There are still defensemen on the roster bubble, and Tortorella said on Wednesday that the competition for the "No. 8 spot is wide open," but that he doesn't exactly want to carry eight defensemen to begin the year. 

"If you're bringing eight, someone's sitting that really should be playing," the coach said." And I think it would be one of our kids in that spot. It's important for them to play."

Tortorella did acknowledge though that Emil Andrae, who began last season with the Flyers but got overwhelmed and needed a demotion down the AHL with the Phantoms, has put in a solid camp. 

Additionally, even though it was against a largely AHL group since the Devils' main roster is overseas to begin the year, Andrae dished out multiple passes that cut right through the lineup that New Jersey did ice on Thursday night, and racked up a goal and two assists in the 5-4 Flyers win to finish his camp and preseason on a high note. 

The 22-year old looks like a much more comfortable and quicker skater now than he was a year ago, and he could be the first in line to get a call this season if another defenseman goes down.

"I don't really think about it," Andrae said postgame Thursday night about where his status on the team might be. "I'm just being in the moment. It was the last exhibition game and I know that, but I'm just trying to go out there like a normal game and play my best.

"I think I did a pretty good job."

Frost's next step forward

It's a big year for Morgan Frost. Granted, and even by his own acknowledgment, every year in the past several for him has been a big one. 

There's always been some sort of major stride for him to take, and as much of a struggle as it always seems to be throughout the season, he does manage to piece things together. 

This season, however, the stakes are a little different. Frost is in a contract year again (he'll be an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent next summer), has finally fought his way into a steady role in the lineup, and has shown that he can be a driving force up the middle of the ice, albeit still in need of more consistency. 

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He's going into the new season as one of the Flyers' better centers, and surrounded by some solid talent between any combination of Michkov, Tippett, Tyson Foerster, Travis Konecny, and Joel Farabee at the wings. 

The setup is there for him to do more on the ice. But at age 25 and entering his sixth season with the Flyers, there might be another responsibility for him, too. 

He's a vet now, on a team that's pushing to get younger. 

"That's not really my role," Frost said to being more of an off-ice leader after practice last Friday. "But if I can lead by example on the ice and be more consistent through 82 games and kind of set the bar, free up some offense on the team, I think that's that's kind of where I want to be."

It's another big year to prove it. 

'He's a coach'

Guy Gaudreau, the father of Johnny and Matthew, has popped up at Voorhees a couple of times in the past couple of weeks to help run Flyers practice. 

Tortorella had never met Guy before, nor Johnny or Matthew, but he called Guy to come out and help – of course, only when he was ready. 

He was on the ice at the Flyers Training Center running players through drills on September 23, then was back at the rink to lend a hand again this past Monday. 

Johnny and Matthew, the two sons turned hockey royalty out of South Jersey, both passed away after being struck by a car while bicycling in their native Salem County on the night of August 29.

Johnny, 31, was a full-blown NHL star with the Calgary Flames and then the Columbus Blue Jackets. Matthew, 29, played at Boston College and then made a run through the minor-league ranks before returning home to take up coaching. 

They were the guys from around here who made it, and their loss has been devastating. 

Back on the 23rd, when Guy first appeared at practice, Tortorella said afterward that he hopes having him around with the team helps him. He doesn't want it to just be a gesture though, he said he wants Guy to play an active role.

"He's a coach," Tortorella said. "He's done some great work with some of the youth out here. I figured it's perfect just to get him in with us. He was hesitant at first, and we kinda let him go at his timetable. I think it worked out really well today. I gave him my camp book. We're gonna check in next week and see if we can get him out here a couple more times and have him be part of it. 

"I don't want it just to be 'come out here.' I want him to be part of it. I think it'll be therapeutic for him to be around us and run some drills. He's done it before. He's a coach. It was great to have him here. We'll see where it goes."

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