Maple Leafs prospect Jacob Quillan believes he can be a full-time NHL player
Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Jacob Quillan hopes that he can make the jump to the NHL on a full-time basis soon.
He was announced to the 2025 Prospect Showdown roster on Tuesday alongside the Leafs’ other top prospects in Easton Cowan, Ben Danford, and Tyler Hopkins among others. Quillan and his fellow Leafs prospects will soon head to Montreal to square off against the Ottawa Senators on September 13 and the Canadiens on September 14.
When asked by reporters what he hopes to get out of the weekend festivities, Quillan simply stated that he wants to keep improving.
“Just take every opportunity I can to get better, try to prove myself, and find a spot on the team,” he said. “I put the work in every day in the gym, on the ice, nutrition stuff like that. So I think I’m looking forward to it this year.”
He is coming off his first pro season in the Leafs organization after joining towards the end of the 2023-24 campaign with the Toronto Marlies. Having spent the majority of this past season in the AHL, he recorded 37 points (18 and 19 assists) in 67 games played while going scoreless in two playoff games.
Quillan also got to make his NHL debut against the Senators on January 25th, though he only registered 5:21 of ice-time after a knee-on-knee collision with Nick Cousins that knocked him out of the game.
“I believe I can. I put the work in every day, so I’m confident in myself and my abilities,” he said on his chances of making it back to the NHL this year. “It kind of made me realize what I’m pushing towards, and it showed me how good those guys are in the NHL. They showed that I have a lot of work to do, so it’s good to get a taste of that.”
He stated that his goals for the upcoming season were to improve his all-around game with an emphasis on playing sound defensively and limiting scoring chances against. Many people in the organization are confident that he can achieve it, as Quillan mentioned that Marlies coach John Gruden told him recently that he hoped not to see him down in the AHL this year.
The focus currently is on having a good showing at the Prospect Showdown while also passing down some wisdom he learned about the pro-lifestyle to his fellow prospects.
“He’s a great player, great playmaker. Looks like he got faster this year a lot,” he said of Cowan. “It’s gonna be fun playing with him and [Borya] Valis out there. They’re two good players, so I’m excited to see what we can do.”
Jett Luchanko not participating in first day of rookie camp as injury concerns rise
One of the Flyers’ top prospects was not seen on the first day of rookie camp and it’s most likely because of an injury that has affected his offseason.
The Philadelphia Flyers have taken their first step in the 2025-26 season. On Thursday they opened the doors to their Voorhees practice facility for the official start of rookie camp and while we saw lots of familiar faces, there was one top prospect not on the ice with the rest of them.
Jett Luchanko was not seen on the ice for the first day of Flyers’ rookie camp and did not participate in the on-ice drills or anything of that nature alongside the other prospects. While sometimes an absence is not explained or there is some other excuse, concerns about Luchanko’s existing groin injury started to rise earlier in the week and now we know it’s severe enough for him not to participate.
The injury in a vacuum is not too much of a concern. Players get bumps and bruises as they start skating more seriously with training camp around the corner, but this is something that has been nagging the 19-year-old center and has affected his offseason greatly.
Luchanko finished his season with the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms, performing quite well and looking like he truly belonged in that league for the time being as one of the team’s better players through the playoffs down there. But shortly after being ousted from the postseason, Luchanko picked up a groin injury that kept him absent from the Flyers’ development camp in July.
We would have assumed that this injury would be healed and Luchanko would be able to be a full participant over two months after missing development camp, but that is not the case. It has now stretched through his entire summer. Now we have to wonder how greatly it has affected his ability to train in the offseason if he can’t even get on the ice during rookie camp and the timing couldn’t be worse.
Luchanko played the majority of his season on a not-so-good Guelph Storm team in the OHL after initially making the Flyers’ roster out of training camp this time last year and looking pretty good for someone that just turned 18 years old. But with the CHL-NHL Agreement rule still in-tact for this season — starting next season, with the new CBA each team can have one 19-year-old from the CHL play in the AHL — it is going to have to be the Flyers or the Storm for the 2025-26 season. Considering Luchanko seems done with the OHL and it would be a slight step back, he has been slated to be in Philadelphia for a full-time position.
Now with Luchanko’s first potential taste of training camp being significantly affected and delayed because of this injury, it is probably the worst way to start a very important couple of weeks.
For some good news, the London Knights duo of defenseman Oliver Bonk and winger Denver Barkey were dealing with some minor injuries through the summer after winning the Memorial Cup in their final year of junior hockey. Both of them were absent from development camp earlier this summer due to some bumps and bruises and a minor injury, but now they are very present and out there skating at rookie camp.
Flyers rookie camp will run through this weekend as they are set to take on the prospects of the New York Rangers in two exhibition games on Friday and Saturday.
UPDATE
The Flyers provided an update on Luchanko’s health after word spread that he was not participating in rookie camp.
So, it looks like we’ll just have to wait and see about Luchanko’s availability. The team said specifically that the 19-year-old center is not available Thursday but did not mention anything about the remaining few days of the rookie camp and the exhibition games on Friday and Saturday.
One would have to assume that stating that Luchanko will be available for training camp means that they’re going to be patient with his health and just keep him away from his peers, knowing that he was going to be involved just to get on the ice and warm-up for the training camp that actually means something.
