Dream now a reality for Reichel

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This article was published 20/12/2021 (1357 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was a moment Kristian Reichel had played over in his head numerous times, one he admittedly wondered if it would ever truly happen.

But there he was on Sunday afternoon at Canada Life Centre, playing an NHL game for the very first time. It’s quite the climb for the undrafted 23-year-old, who has spent the past four seasons working away in the minors just waiting for opportunity to hopefully come knocking. 

“I think every kid has a dream to play in the NHL one day and that dream just came true,” the smiling young man from the Czech Republic said in his post-game media availability following a 4-2 victory over St. Louis. “All the work I put in throughout the years just paid off (Sunday) and I was super excited.”

The Winnipeg Jets had to dig even deeper into their forward depth after both David Gustafsson and Evgeny Svechnikov were hurt in Friday’s game against Washington. They joined captain Blake Wheeler in the infirmary.

That prompted the recall of both Reichel and C.J. Suess from the Manitoba Moose, and both were thrown directly into action against St. Louis skating on a fourth line with Jansen Harkins. Suess, 27, has one previous NHL game on his resume back in 2019.

“It’s awesome. Like Reichs said, it’s something every kid dreams of. Pretty memorable for him. We got a big win against a Central Division opponent so it made it that much better. It’s awesome to see Reichs get his first game and hopefully it’s the first of many,” said Jets centre Mark Scheifele.

“He’s a guy that’s not afraid of the dirty areas. He’ll go to the net, he’ll grind in the corner, he’s got a pretty good shot. He’s one of those guys that you know he’s a gamer, he’s going to bring it, he’s going to go to the dirty areas and he’s going to get his nose dirty. Those are tough to find.”

Reichel has five goals and seven assists in 25 games with the Moose this season. The former Red Deer Rebels forward was signed as a free agent by the AHL club, and later turned that into a two-way deal as the organization saw his potential. 

“Just keep working hard. Draft is one part but … if you work your ass off every day, sometimes you will get rewarded for that,” Reichel said of his personal mindset. “For me personally, it was just a booster because I wasn’t drafted. I had extra motivation to prove everybody wrong, that I belong and I want to get a shot and just keeping working hard and staying focused and be a good guy, you’ll get rewarded.”

Although they didn’t hit the scoresheet, there’s no doubt Reichel and Suess (four goals, eight assists in 23 games with the Moose this year) brought some enthusiasm to a team desperately in need of a boost.

“New life, new energy,” said veteran Jets forward Paul Stastny.

“Those guys are good players. There are a lot of good players. As you get older you learn that sometimes it’s about opportunity. Some guys are knocking. Some guys get an opportunity because of a trade or an injury or something like that. When you do call up these guys, they all bring a unique skill set. They bring a sense of excitement to the locker room away from the ice that maybe we kind of needed. Sometimes when you’re not winning and you’re going through what we’re going through. Hopefully those guys stay up, get more comfortable, and play a little more.”

Reichel’s only regret on Sunday is that his family couldn’t be in the stands to witness his debut, which included doing the solo “hot lap” as the pre-game warmup began.

“The COVID situation is not great right now. I got the call (Saturday) but it was pretty quick. All my family, girlfriend, all my friends and pretty much every in Czech was watching today. I hope they’re happy for me,” he said.

Reichel’s father, Robert, played 830 regular-season games over 11 NHL seasons with Calgary, the New York Islanders, Phoenix and Toronto. 

“He was surprised that I got called up because he didn’t know. My mom knew first. So I was pretty excited for him. He just congratulated me and wished me best of luck,” the younger Reichel said of any fatherly advice he received.

To create salary cap room for the cash-strapped Jets, Wheeler was moved to long-term injured reserve on Sunday. That allows the club to go over the $81.5 million ceiling until Wheeler is ready to return to the lineup and his his US $8.25 million has to be accounted for. He’s expected to miss multiple weeks with a knee injury suffered on Dec. 10 in Vancouver, but no specific timeline has been provided. Gustafsson is considered day-to-day, while Svechnikov is expected to be slightly longer.

Defenceman Nate Schmidt was also ruled out of Sunday’s game with a non-COVID illness. Nathan Beaulieu took his spot in the lineup.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg