New Canucks forward Lukas Reichel claims he never officially requested a trade from the Blackhawks, but he correctly assumed the organization knew it was time for him to move on.
“I didn’t go in the room and ask Kyle [Davidson], ‘Please trade me,'” Reichel said Wednesday. “But I think they knew it, too, that I’m not a fourth-line player and I’m not a grinder. The way it went in Chicago, they had their top six kind of set. … They told me it’s going to be a good opportunity here, and so far it’s been really good.”
Reichel’s Oct. 24 trade to the Canucks made him basically the first member of the Hawks’ young generation to get dealt.
At practice at Fifth Third Arena the next day, things did feel odd. Reichel’s boyish charm made him unique, and it was clear his presence was missing. On the Hawks’ off day Tuesday in Vancouver, a whopping 14 guys went to dinner with Reichel to catch up.
“We come in today and obviously ‘Reichs’ is gone, and it’s different,” Connor Bedard said Oct. 25. “But you go out and do your job anyway. That’s how it is. It’s tough when you see guys go, but…you’re still on the same team and you’ve still got all of the other 25 guys. It’s just something you’ve got to deal with.”
The fact trade rumors had circled around Reichel for a while probably made the news easier to swallow for the Hawks. It was clear the franchise no longer had him penned into their long-term plans.
What will it feel like when a higher-profile, less-expected trade happens?
How will the core players handle it when not just one but instead four or five of their friends — guys they came up through the system with — have been shipped out? They’ve gotten accustomed to veterans coming and going, but will it feel different when it’s fellow kids going out?
Those are questions worth asking, because that will eventually happen. The Hawks have such an abundance of prospects that they inevitably will need to trade some.
That’s partially because they won’t have enough NHL roster spots to fit all of them, and partially because they’ll need to bring a few established stars in order to become a true contender — and packaging several prospects together is one way to acquire such a star.
That squeezing-out process is already underway. Oliver Moore’s call-up this week led to Landon Slaggert’s demotion to the AHL, for example. And since Moore plays a similarly speedy, scrappy style to Slaggert but in a more effective way, he might render Slaggert expendable before long.
The paths to permanent Hawks jobs look equally murky for Rockford defensemen Kevin Korchinski, Ethan Del Mastro and Nolan Allan, considering how many other young defensemen have established themselves in the NHL ahead of them.
Korchinski’s status as a former top-10 pick certainly puts him in a different conversation than Del Mastro and Allan, but that also makes his trade value higher. He was drafted as an ultra-offensive defenseman, but with Sam Rinzel and Artyom Levshunov already quarterbacking the Hawks’ power-play units, where does that leave Korchinski in the theoretical future depth chart?
When the Hawks’ second wave of prospects — guys like Anton Frondell, Roman Kantserov, Marek Vanacker, Sacha Boisvert and their top 2026 pick — reach NHL readiness, the competition will only get fiercer.
There will be some losers in that natural-selection process whom the Hawks will need to rehouse.
From a team-building standpoint, general manager Davidson will have no problem with that. It’s basically part of his plan: a surplus of assets is one of the fruits of a successful rebuild.
Within the locker room, however, it will take some fortitude and maturity to prevent those departures from disrupting the chemistry and social fabric of the team.
Nazar’s perspective
Young Hawks cornerstone forward Frank Nazar isn’t thinking about trades right now, but he does have a unique perspective on the Moore/Slaggert situation — since he and Slaggert followed a Rockford-to-Chicago path last fall that mirrored Moore’s path this fall.
“[Oliver] went down to Rockford and didn’t pout, didn’t do anything bad,” Nazar said. “He went down, proved himself and earned a call-up. I think he should keep playing with that same attitude of keep earning stuff, and he’ll achieve whatever he wants.”
Moore has been noticeable in the NHL this week, not only because of his speed on the forecheck but — perhaps more surprisingly — because of his hard work to win puck battles down low.
He set up one great chance from below the goal line Monday against the Kraken, then did the same thing Wednesday and earned an assist on Ilya Mikheyev’s goal.
Meanwhile, Nazar is disappointed about Slaggert’s demotion, but he said he “knows” Slaggert will handle it with a positive attitude and keep working hard in Rockford. Nazar raved about Slaggert’s defensive instincts and stick usage, which he boldly ranked the “best on the team.”
“He’s super fast and explosive, so [he can get] up on guys early and quick,” Nazar said. “He’s kind of a sneaky player. You might look over your shoulder and not see him, but he’s there, right next to you, taking the puck.”
Reichel’s new scenery
Reichel’s trade and travel experience sounded straight out of a movie. He got the call in a Portillo’s parking lot — an extremely Chicago moment. He dashed to O’Hare for a 7:45 p.m. flight to Vancouver that got delayed over and over until 7 a.m., forcing Reichel to sleep at the gate.
Since he arrived in Vancouver, however, the Canucks haven’t yet found a way to unlock more production out of Reichel than the Hawks did.
He has zero points in his first seven games, having failed to convert on a decent number of chances — including a breakaway Wednesday on Hawks goalie Spencer Knight. The Canucks have been outscored 9-3 during his five-on-five ice time so far.
They’ve kept him in a prominent role within their injury-ravaged lineup, though, which Reichel has appreciated. He’s averaging nearly 16 minutes of ice time while centering their second line between Brock Boeser and Jake DeBrusk.
“I’m just having a lot of fun out there, playing hockey again,” Reichel said. “I want to show that the Canucks made the right move.”