Generally speaking, the nine-game threshold for junior-aged players only comes into effect at the beginning of the year when teams need to decide what to do with their prospects that are pushing to make the team out of training camp and can’t go to the minors. That wasn’t the case for the Blackhawks and winger Lukas Reichel as he was able to play in the AHL and has spent most of the season there.
However, the 19-year-old is in his third stint with Chicago this season and has played in nine games so far. Interim head coach Derek King indicated to reporters including Charlie Roumeliotis of NBC Sports Chicago that he will play in his tenth this afternoon against Nashville. Reichel, the 17th pick in 2020, hasn’t recorded a point yet in the NHL but has played quite well with AHL Rockford, recording 21 goals and 28 assists in 49 games. He’s expected to return to the IceHogs at some point over the next couple of weeks as well to help in their playoff run.
Roumeliotis suggests that burning the first year this season may actually be more beneficial to the Blackhawks from a longer-term planning perspective. When he’s up for a new deal in the 2024 offseason, he’ll only have at most two full NHL seasons under his belt which should keep the AAV lower, giving Chicago a bit more short-term cap flexibility. Chicago will have some pricey contracts expiring by then – particularly those of Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane at $10.5MM each – but having a core piece on a cheaper second deal certainly can’t hurt.
It’s worth noting that Chicago will not lose a year of team control by doing this. In order to receive a year of service time, Reichel would have needed to have gotten to 40 games on the active roster and that’s clearly not going to happen with the Blackhawks already mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. As a result of this, Reichel will need his second contract a year sooner but Chicago will still have seven years of team control remaining.