Lukas Reichel Named To AHL’s Top Prospects Team

It’s not just soon-to-be Chicago Blackhawk Connor Bedard racking up the honors.  The Rockford IceHogs’ Lukas Reichel was named to the AHL’s first ever Top Prospects Team Wednesday afternoon. Reichel’s inclusion is amongst some of the heavyweights of prospects which include Minnesota Wild prospect Jesper Wallstedt, Columbus’ David Jiricek, and the New Jersey Devils’ Simon Nemec to name a few.

The announcement was made per a release from Rockford.

This is another accolade for a Blackhawks prospect, which includes Kevin Korchinski and Nolan Allan who brought in their own high marks at the junior level.

Congratulations to Lukas Reichel on being named to the inaugural AHL Top Prospects Team! Reichel is one of only six players in the entire league to be named to this list👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/J8SJhjnxxt

— Rockford IceHogs (@goicehogs) June 7, 2023

Reichel Ready For Full Time Duty

This will likely be the final season of Reichel’s time in Rockford as the winger spent 23 games in Chicago, notching 15 points (7-8) in those appearances. While with Rockford, he was barely under a point-per-game rate with 51 points in 55 games. 20 of those points were goals.

He also shuttled to and from Rockford, but credit is due to IceHogs bench boss Anders Sorensen and his staff for ensuring that Reichel was not only ready for when Chicago called, but put in good spots to succeed when waiting for that call up.

With Bedard set to be drafted by the Blackhawks three weeks, Reichel’s chance at seeing more success at the NHL level certainly improves, too. General manager Kyle Davidson has made it clear he’s going to be patient despite Bedard speeding things up some. But the time is now for Reichel, who has nothing more to prove at the AHL level.

The enticing part, however, is thinking of how head coach Luke Richardson could best deploy him. If Davidson is indeed building slower still, could Reichel audition for a spot on the top line? If not there, would it be beneficial to place him on the top power play unit which presumably would include Bedard?

Reichel obviously has more NHL games to his name, but Bedard, barring bizarre circumstances, will find himself with the big club logging big boy minutes to boot.

Reichel has been eased in, but that will certainly be different now that the young core is taking shape. The 21-year-old forward certainly looks like he could fit in quite well there.

He’s certainly shown it at the AHL level. Now it’s all showing it in Chicago.