The Athletic’s Max Bultman posted a fine Red Wings Summer Development Camp notebook yesterday, and this afternoon, the Hockey News’s Sam Stockton shares a similarly superb set of assessments of 8 of the Red Wings’ 40 participants in their Summer Development Camp:
Jakub Rychlovsky: After Detroit’s relatively quiet July 1, I wonder whether Rychlovsky (whom Detroit signed in June after a standout season with with Bílí Tygři Liberec in the Czech Extraliga) might be a player who could compete for an opening night NHL roster spot. With Tyler Motte and Vladimir Tarasenko now rounding out the forward group, I no longer expect that to be the case, and it is probably for the best for a player who has yet to play a competitive game on North American ice.
“He’s been here for about a week, just getting to know everybody,” said Cleary of Rychlovsky. “I really like him…Quite, strong little guy. I was friends with someone who was coaching him in Czech [sic], so he kinda reached out…Watching him skate, handle the puck, move it, he’s a driven young kid, so we’ll see how it goes. Going from the Czech league to let’s just say Grand Rapids is a bit of an adjustment.”
He is a good skater with a frame built to protect the puck, and I thought he showed a real offensive maturity in the three-on-three sessions. A tournament like that is bound to produce a lot of odd-man rushes, and I was impressed with the poise and patience Rychlovsky to manipulate those to his advantage. I did notice him struggling a bit with picking up pucks along the wall during drills that required that, which he will need to sharpen to maximize his effectiveness at the NHL level, but that shouldn’t be a problem with time.
One point of curiosity for me is how often Rychlovsky seemed comfortable holding up play and looking to preserve possession rather than keep attacking. Of course, that’s a tactic we see all the time in three-on-three in the NHL, but not so often at five-a-side. I’ll be curious to see whether that is an area that requires adjustment in adapting to North America or whether he’ll find a way to make it work.
Stockton continues; Rychlovsky is still used to the more soccer-like pace of play on European rinks, where the 100-foot-width allows players to loop back and re-set their rushes until they find a prime opportunity to penetrate their opponents’ defenses.
That’s something he’s going to have to learn to minimize as he adapts to the 85-foot-rink and the more north-south, attack-attack style of the North American pro game.
Right now, the 5’10,” 181-pound Rychlovsky probably isn’t going to make the Red Wings’ roster out of training camp, and he may very well need to be patient as he rides the bus over the course of a full AHL season.
What I’ve seen of him definitely indicates that he has NHL skill levels and really good puck-handling and deception, but as a small guy who’s used to having much more time and space to create offense, he’s going to have to simplify his game to thrive here. That’s a normal hurdle for European players trying to become North American pros–as is enduring those long bus rides and the number of back-to-back games that AHL teams play.
Hopefully, he’ll adapt.
