Le Journal

Maybe the most controversial thing the Philadelphia Flyers have done under general manager Danny Briere has been their decision at the draft table the last two years. Mostly, the choice to opt for center Jett Luchanko over defenseman Zeev Buium, who is carving out a nice start to his NHL career after dominating college hockey. That’s boring though. Yawn — oh, the Flyers made their choice based on position and possibly based on Buium sharing an agent with the prospect who told them to f–k off and forced a trade to the market with the least amount of pressure in the entire league. Briere already explained their decision to not take Buium and select the super-young and speedy center in Luchanko almost immediately after they made the pick. It’s not new news and now it’s just a part of reality. But now? The hot new thing is to look at the prospect selected after Luchanko at 14th overall — center Konsta Helenius of the Buffalo Sabres. Comparing prospects so early is a waste of time Helenius was the consensus pick after Buium was gone. In the seconds between selections, as almost every single Flyers fan waited for Briere to make the call and publicize the team’s decision, there was an oh okay, so Helenius it is, then sentiment that spread across everyone’s minds. But, they decided to not take the Finnish center that had skating and pace problems, but instead went for the guy from the OHL that skates really damn fast, is as defensively sound as anyone at his age, and is also the youngest player in the entire draft class. It is a decision that we have obviously all thought about for years now and gets brought up whenever someone wants to be mad about this team as Luchanko is still just a teenager and because of stupid rules, having to play in the OHL. But now it has come up once more for the most online of Flyers fans to get extremely upset about. Helenius just played his second NHL game on Tuesday night as the Sabres earned a big 5-3 win over the lowly Nashville Predators. But what really set some fans over the edge is the fact that in the first period of that game, Helenius managed to earn two primary assists and then scored a goal on a heck of a shot for his first NHL goal. It proved to be the most perfect opportunity for everyone to freak out about the pick once again. Panic strikes so easily in the hearts of fans as soon as a player selected soon after a Flyers selection does something notable and at this point in time, it is so stupidly early to be jumping to any conclusion about any draft decision this team makes, even as far back as two years ago. Sure, Helenius having a performance like that in his second NHL game while Luchanko has had eight total appearances with the Flyers in the last two seasons and has yet registered his first point, is not a good look on paper. But it’s all about the limited scope of what we see — Luchanko’s two stints with the Flyers were at the start of the season, one as a freshly turned 18-year-old who was just drafted months prior, and then a 19-year-old trying to catch up under a new coach while he also missed a large portion of training camp. That context does not favor Luchanko, or give him the right opportunity, in the slightest. Add the fact that Helenius has had the ability to play in the AHL as a teenager because of being drafted out of Europe, and him getting up to the speed of the professional game for the last several months, and that is another bit of context that raises Helenius’s likelihood of pulling something like his off. And maybe the real kicker is the vastly different opportunities these two young centers were given. Luchanko was thrown down on the fourth line and during the four games this season, his most common teammates were Nikita Grebenkin and Garnet Hathaway. Compare that to Helenius being on the wing and playing with Noah Ostlund and Zach Benson, two young former first-round picks that have proved to…

The 2026 World Juniors have come and gone and all six Flyers prospects who took part in the winter tournament up there in Minnesota, have now returned to their leagues around the world. Finishing off the second half of their seasons as they aim for brighter and bigger futures and potentially even moving up a division or maybe even signing an NHL contract to start that whole new journey. There were a variety of outcomes at the World Juniors for the Flyers’ prospects. Some excelled on the biggest stage so far in their careers, while other shrunk in minor depth roles and were never truly an impact player while representing their country. We already had a look at just how all six of these lovely, super cool prospects fared at the tournament, but what has happened since then? It’s been over two weeks since everyone went home and all six of them have at least played a couple games for their respective teams. So, let’s see if any mid-season tournament performances have really kickstarted these guys, or they’re in a bit of a rut. Porter Martone Martone had a productive but fairly quiet World Juniors — he racked up the points to be among the leading scorers but never truly looked the dominant part that some were expecting. Canada sheepishly took the bronze medal after being heralded as an instant favorite and Martone was a part of that. But, he took that momentum of being able to score some points and ran with it back to Michigan State. In the very first game back for the Spartans, the Flyers 2025 first-round draft pick scored two goals and added two more assists to that total, setting a new season-high in points in a single game with his four. It was a great performance but the three games after that, Martone has managed to register just one goal and two assists. It is great to see him score in every single game he plays in (Martone has only ever left a game for Michigan State without a point four times) but it’s not the world-beating totals that some would expect. Porter Martone is your Big Ten Second Star of the Week!The freshman posted a season-best four points on Friday night and followed it up with a game-tying goal on Saturday night to finish the weekend with five points on three goals and two assists pic.twitter.com/qzaoRZRA0Z— Michigan State Hockey (@MSU_Hockey) January 13, 2026 The Spartans did face some tough competition in Wisconsin, the fifth-ranked school in the nation, and didn’t get to beat up on New Hampshire or Northern Michigan again, so the point totals in some close wins is somewhat explained. Still, he’s scoring at a great rate for someone who was just drafted several months ago and certainly didn’t let some mid-season tournament mess that up. Jett Luchanko While Martone enjoyed the heights of being at the top of the lineup for Canada, Jett Luchanko rounded out the roster as a regular member of the bottom six. This sort of defense-first role might have continued with Luchanko as he returned to his new OHL team in the Brantford Bulldogs after the tournament. Since returning to the Bulldogs, Luchanko has scored just one goal and two assists in five games. Three points in five games as his team went on to win four of those games and the only loss came in an overtime bout. It doesn’t feel all that good. For any Draft+2 forward in the OHL who was a top-15 pick, the expectation is that they are leading the team in scoring, or at least dominant in all three zones. But for Luchanko, it’s a much more subtle role than most would want out of the 13th overall pick. Maybe it is still getting used to his new environment in Brantford — he did just play six games for the Bulldogs before leaving to go participate in the world Juniors — but the recent performances really seem to fuel even more concern that fans had before the trade that sent him to the best team in the OHL. We’ll have to keep an even closer eye on just how Luchanko is doing,…

Marine Interdiction Agents from Air and Marine Operations, an operational component of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, rescued a man who was stranded after his kayak capsized off the coast of Salinas, Puerto Rico, on Monday.

Paul Markoff, a former Department of Homeland Security Acquisition Professional Career Program participant, died January 9, 2026, in an avalanche while backcountry snowmobiling in Washington state. He was 38.

Voilà une petite statistique qui nous avait échappée : en décembre, la SITA a publié un communiqué de presse pour faire le point sur sa collaboration avec Apple un an après la mise en place avec iOS 18.2 du partage temporaire de la localisation des AirTags avec une compagnie aérienne en cas...