Photo Credits: FNG’s Rob Windfelder
The Flyers beat the Rangers 3-2 in the 1st game of the annual Rookie Series. This event marks the official lead up to the Flyers 2026-27 season. Not to get ahead of things, opening night is still weeks away, but this is where it all begins.
Players participating in Rookie Camp are hoping to stay with the team as long as possible when Flyers Training Camp opens this coming Thursday September 17th. These games will help decide who sticks around to take part in main camp with the big team. This is the time for these young prospects to make their case.
These two games are also key for the New York Rangers prospects as well. The Rangers are a team in transition. They need their younger players to step up and fill some key roles. The Rangers went from winning the President’s Trophy in 2024 to not making the playoffs last season. That’s a huge decline in such a short amount of time.
Takeaways
The players you’d expect to stand out for the Flyers did exactly that. The line of Jett Luchanko, Cole Knuble, and Alex Bump dominated tonight’s game. All three players put forth a strong performance.
Ty Murchison, wearing the C, had a solid game tonight as well. Murchison made his NHL debut with the Flyers last December. In January he sustained an injury during a Phantoms game that ended his season. This is a big camp for him as he works his way back after recovering from surgery. He looked good tonight. Alex Ciernik and Nathan Quinn also drew the right kind of attention in this game. Ciernik was relentless and Quinn can really fly when he shifts gears.
Jett Luchanko
This is the first time in a while that we’ve gotten to see a healthy Jett Luchanko at any kind of Flyers camp. Luchanko was drafted by the Flyers 13th overall in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft. When he showed up to camp that year he was quite impressive. He ended up making the squad on opening night for a nine game tryout. During that stint John Tortorella had him play shift for shift against Connor McDavid, and he didn’t look out of place doing so.
Last season Luchanko was suffering from a nagging injury that kept him from participating in Development Camp, Rookie Camp, and Flyers Training Camp. Last year should have been key for Luchanko. Some already consider him “a bust” but injuries happen and Jett is the kind of high caliber player that deserves the consideration. He’s at Rookie Camp again this year after undergoing a procedure for what is believed to be a core issue.
This year’s camp is a chance for Luchanko to prove himself to be the promising prospect that the Flyers chose at such a high pick. In this game against the Rangers Jett was very solid centering the top line. He got hammered with at hit early in the 2nd period and bounced back immediately. If anything he was moving a bit faster than the rest of the game which at times had him waiting at the blue line during entries. He was always moving and making things happen at both ends of the ice.
He set up the Flyers 3rd goal of the game after cutting through most of the Rangers squad with the puck before dishing it off to Alex Bump. Bump was named star of the game for his fine performance tonight. Cole Knuble and Matthew Gard also scored for the Flyers.
Carson Bjarnason
Bjarnason remained in the Flyers net for all three periods stopping 27 of 29 shots on goal. The Rangers were on the man advantage for both goals allowed. Bjarnason was called on to make some tough saves during the course of the contest.
Bjarnason had a rough year in his first with the Phantoms last season. He even spent part of his time in Reading with the Royals. Bjarnason needs a strong camp, tonight was a great start.
Maksim Sokolovskii
Flyers 2026 1st round pick, 18 year old 6′-8″ 240 lb defenseman has quite a presence on the ice. At the time of the draft many were saying he would purely be a stay at home shut down d-man. Starting with his performance at development camp we have seen glimpses of a completely different element of his game. Sokolovskii has great hands and some tricky moves at his disposal. On closing day of dev camp during the round robin series Maksim was actually one of the most offensively prolific players on the ice.
Of course he is young and has work ahead of him. He found himself on the wrong side of the puck a couple times tonight. He was in the penalty box during both of the Rangers goals. But other than that he still had a positive impact in this game. You can only hope that as the organization develops his defensive game they are also able to preserve the offensive creativity this kid has already shown us he is capable of.
Up Next
Tonight’s match ended in a scrum that saw both Noah Powell and Ty Murchison dropping gloves and full on battling it out with Rangers players after time ran out. Game 2 of the Flyers vs Rangers Rookie Series is Sunday evening at 5PM. Should be fun!
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