It’s Time To Get Excited About Lukas Reichel Again
Credit: NHL.com
The recent spotlight in Chicago has unsurprisingly been on Connor Bedard, the Blackhawks’ latest number-one overall draft pick. While this excitement will not die down for a long time, especially not any time in the near future, 21-year-old forward Lukas Reichel should not be left in the shadows. Reichel was quite fun to watch in 2023 when he was called up from the Rockford IceHogs for an extended look at how he would fit into the Chicago lineup.
For the 2022-23 NHL regular season, Lukas Reichel had four separate stints with the Chicago Blackhawks and five with the Rockford IceHogs, including their brief attempt at the Calder Cup. With the NHL squad, Reichel played in 23 games and gathered 15 points, seven of which were goals. In Rockford, he played in 55 games and collected 51 points, 20 of which were goals. His AHL stats alone are enough to prove that he deserved a full-time job in Chicago, and the NHL team took notice. Reichel was granted a callup at the beginning of March and did not leave until it was time for Rockford to begin a playoff run a little more than a week into April.
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Once the ping pong balls of the NHL Draft lottery granted the Chicago Blackhawks access to Connor Bedard, the team no longer needed to answer the question of who would be the new face of the franchise. With the ending of the Kane and Toews era, the Chicago club needed to not only figure that out, but to develop a new core group as well. There are some very exciting players in the mix such as Kevin Korchinski, Frank Nazar, Drew Commesso, and Oliver Moore, but Lukas Reichel leads the way.
After each call-up to Chicago, Reichel proved time and time again that he wanted and was ready to play in the NHL. With a now-loaded pipeline, the Blackhawks are slowly but surely getting to experience the rewards of a tough rebuild. There should be no doubt that Lukas Reichel can and will be an instrumental piece to the future success of Chicago hockey.
