Now with Reichel's confidence building, head coach Luke Richardson hopes to move him around different areas such as the power play. With his budding chemistry with Philipp Kurashev, Richardson feels the two can add to the special teams unit.
"I think him and [Philipp Kurashev] have a good thing going, they really look for each other [even during practice]," Richardson said. "But more importantly, for me, is how he's been playing five-on-five. He's really trying to show the five-on-five and the more confidence he gets five-on-five, I think he's going to be able to even be more confident when there's more room out, there five-on-four."
After a deserved call-up from the Rockford IceHogs, where he posted 36 points and 14 goals, Reichel has also been named an AHL All-Star alongside Brett Seney and David Gust.
"It's a special moment, for Rockford to have three guys from the same team," Reichel said. "You see what team we are in Rockford, and we want to keep that going too."
Coming off two back-to-back wins for the first time since October, it's clear that Reichel has made an impact on the organization. Richardson stated that he likes how he's been connecting with the first line of Kurashev and Max Domi, and skating through traffic nicely to create offensive chances.
The key, now, for Reichel is to focus on consistency, especially after a career game like he had in Sunday's 4-3 victory over the Calgary Flames, tallying three points (1G, 2A).
"It's only been a couple of games, but he's consistently getting better," Richardson said. "[He did that] in the American League, and that's what we asked him to do, and now he's gotten an opportunity [in the NHL] and he's making the most of it."
As Richardson says, as well, it takes the whole team working hard and together to make that happen.
"It takes everybody to win the game," he said. "When the fourth line goes out and scores a goal, that drives the first line to play better."
