- The Flyers plan to open the season with Trevor Zegras at center
- Jett Luchanko is ticketed for a full year in AHL Lehigh Valley
- Read below for the pairing Rick Tocchet’s staff wants to try early in camp
Trevor Zegras is Philadelphia’s center, and the Flyers are not holding an open audition to decide it.
Kevin Kurz of The Athletic wrote Monday that the plan right now is for Zegras to start in the middle, and that top prospect Jett Luchanko will spend the season in AHL Lehigh Valley rather than push him for the job.
Luchanko went 13th overall in 2024 and has played four NHL games in each of the last two seasons. Handing him a full year with the Phantoms leaves Rick Tocchet holding Noah Cates, Christian Dvorak and Sean Couturier behind Zegras, plus Denver Barkey if the staff wants another look down the middle.
Zegras earned the runway late last season. He wasn’t ready to handle the position when he first arrived in Philadelphia, but the coaching staff saw enough after moving him to center in early March to believe he can hold it.
Keeping it is on him. The other way this changes is Daniel Briere landing a high-end center, and Briere already spent the summer swinging at that problem without connecting.
Tocchet’s group does have one experiment lined up. The staff is intrigued by putting Matvei Michkov and Zegras on the ice together, and that pairing should turn up early in camp, possibly on the power play since both live on the right flank.
The coaches spent part of August mapping this out:
Back in July, Zegras talked up the job when it was still an ambition instead of a plan. Watch his summer press conference:
Philadelphia never addressed the middle this summer and still carries one of the youngest rosters in the league. Briere has said the Flyers might take a step back, which Kurz read as missing a second round rather than sliding out of the race entirely.
Much of that rides on Dan Vladar, now signed for six more years after tying for the best five-on-five save percentage in the NHL:
Flyers and Rangers prospects meet in Allentown on Sept. 12-13, with main camp right behind it. Zegras shows up to that one holding the center job, which is more than he could say in July.
