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Jett Luchanko’s connections to fellow Londoner Nick Suzuki keep growing.
He is a slick centre for the Guelph Storm, the club the current Montreal Canadiens captain led to an OHL title five years ago. This past season, he won the William Hanley Trophy as the league’s most sportsmanlike player, an honour Suzuki won three times during his major junior career.
And if the recent NHL draft first-round predictions for Friday hold true, the 17-year-old should be the highest-selected Jr. Knights grad since Suzuki went 13th overall to Vegas in 2017.
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“He’s someone I’ve seen a lot around and I watched him closely,” Luchanko said ahead of his trip to Sin City this week. “I grew up watching him play, even here in London. He’s someone I idolize quite a bit.”
The sophomore centre led the Storm in scoring with 20 goals and 74 points in 68 games this past season. Most impressively, he usually went head-to-head against the top defensive players on every team.
“I like it,” the five-foot-11, 185-pounder said. “It’s a fun challenge and I embraced those matchups. It’s nice to see how you stack up against the top guys. (Guelph) let me know I was going to have a bigger role this year.
“I did a lot to prepare for it. I put in a lot of effort and I think it paid off.”
His speed and shiftiness drew praise from opposing blue-liners. Fellow top prospect Sam Dickinson of the London Knights thought Luchanko was hard to handle.
“He’s so fast, you have to be careful,” Dickinson said. “You have to be aware of the gap because if he is even with you, then you’re in trouble. He’s probably going to beat you.”
Luchanko watched Knights forward Easton Cowan win the OHL’s most valuable player the season after he was picked in the first round by the Maple Leafs. The Storm star learned a lot in their head-to-head battles this year.
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“He does everything well,” Luchanko said. “There’s not much flaw to his game. He’s someone I watch closely and he’s someone I try to model my game after. He’s fun to play against and his competitiveness is off the charts. That’s the biggest thing I can learn from him.”
Luchanko spoke to 29 teams at the NHL combine in Buffalo. The only three he didn’t were Tampa, Vancouver and Dallas.
“I’m looking forward to the draft,” he said. “I’m just going to take it all in and enjoy it. I didn’t worry about the scouts or the rankings this year. I didn’t even really try to think about it. I just wanted to help my team win, improve my game and knew everything else would fall into place.”
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