Inside Wheeler’s Shocking Summer 2025 NHL Prospect Rankings: Who’s the True Future Star?
Luchanko is a standout athlete (he performs exceedingly well in fitness testing and is very strong for a 5-foot-11/6-foot player) with average to above-average skill, impressive skating ability and standout on-ice intelligence. He understands timing, spacing and puck movement at a very advanced level, always finding his way into good spots. He has good instincts on the PK and can really apply pressure with his skating. And then there are other complementary tools which come second. He protects pucks well with a wide gait. He has really good balance, posture and mechanics, and while I wouldn’t call his upper-echelon skating elite, it’s a definite asset, and he has some pull-away speed. He plays in and out of give-and-gos. But it’s the consistency of his reads, paths and decisions that define his game. He makes the right play with the puck almost always, and he’s extremely unselfish. (There are, however, times when I’d like to see him hold onto pucks and attack so that I can evaluate his skill better, but he just always gives it to the open man and then gets back open.) I would like to see him score more (he played a more aggressive style last year on a low-talent Guelph team, but can still be too deferential) as well, but when there’s a play to be made, he won’t hesitate to make it.
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