Red Wings free agent signing Jakub Rychlovsky scored a pretty rebound goal in the Wings prospects’ 5-1 win over the Dallas Stars yesterday…
Jakub Rychlovsky🚨 on a rebound off of a MBN one time blast. 3-1. #LGRW pic.twitter.com/ZFKp7e9QlG
— Red Wings Prospects (@LGRWProspects) September 14, 2024
And this morning, Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff takes note of Grand Rapids Griffins coach Dan Watson’s remarks regarding a player he’s likely to be coaching in West Michigan this fall:
“Yeah, I love his skill,” said Grand Rapids Griffins coach Dan Watson, who was handling the Detroit bench. “I love his energy.”
In fact, there really wasn’t an uneventful Rychlovsky shift during the game. The puck just seems to find this guy and then he makes something positive happen once in possession of it. Rychlovsky was skating on left wing on the top line alongside first-round picks Nate Danielson (2023) and Brandsegg-Nygard (2024).
Rychlovsky, 23, was the leading goal scorer in Czech Extraliga last with with 26 tallies for Liberec. The Red Wings knew they were acquiring a guy who could put the biscuit in the basket when they were signing him as a free agent.
What they are discovering in this rookie camp is that his package contains so much more in terms of ingredients.
“One thing that probably went a little unnoticed that we saw is that compete level playing through bodies,” Watson said. “He’s not scared of the physicality. He got through hands. He stole a lot of pucks and he created a lot of turnovers for us.
“You can see he’s got that hunting mentality. He wants the puck, he’s willing to go and get it back. He’s not scared of that work and that compete level. So I liked his game a lot and I’m looking forward to see his development here again.”
Continued; it was just one game of the Red Wings’ two-game Prospect Games slate, so it’s hard to declare Rychlovsky the second coming of the Great European Free Agent Signing just yet…
But first impressions matter, and Rychlovsky appears to have both the scoring skills and a surprising level of North American-level “compete” in him as well.
