I’ve been looking at the Red Wings’ prospect pool on an informal basis over the last couple of weeks. In the case of 23-year-old winger Jakub Rychlovsky, I had to double check PuckPedia and the Grand Rapids Griffins’ “Roster and Alumni Tracker” to confirm that the 5’10,” 181-pound Rychlovsky was still Red Wings property.
It was easy for Rychlovsky to get lost in the shuffle, because he followed up a 46-points-in-51-games season with the Bili Tygri Liberec of the Czech Extraliga with an injury-plagued North American rookie season in which he registered 3 goals and 5 assists for 8 points in 38 games, which isn’t pretty.
I had assumed that Rychlovsky would be leaving the Red Wings’ organization to head back to Europe, but he’s still on the books for one more season.
Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff reports good news on the Rychlovsky front this morning (via a look behind the paywall at an article from iSport’s Zbynek Irgl, Radek Duda and Miroslav Horak). Duff reports that Rychlovsky still believes that he can salvage his North American career:
“It was an extremely difficult season,” Rychlovsky told the Zimak podcast on the Czech website iSport.
Spending the entire 2024-25 campaign with the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins, the Czech winger was limited to 38 games due to injury. First, there was a groin issue. Later, a lower-body ailment requiring surgery brought a conclusion to his first North American pro season.
The rash of injuries only served to prolong the adjustment period for Rychlovsky.
“I probably expected that in the second half of the season, I would feel that I was starting to get used to it a little bit,” Rychlovsky said. “After all, hockey is different there, and you combine that with things like traveling, sleep, and all this is more complicated. I think that by then, I had figured out a little bit how it works.
“That’s when the blow came that I didn’t even expect. After the MRI in the New Year, it was just bad. The doctor told me it would require surgery. It was quite a shock for me and ended my season.”
Continued; Rychlovsky admits to iSport’s Irgl, Duda and Horak that he struggled with the lack of off-ice structure in North American pro hockey, as well as the AHL grind…
But he also insists that his second season with the Griffins will be much better than the first:
“I just have to focus on being faster, more agile, smarter,” Rychlovsky said. “To be a bigger badass. I have to bring that to the game. They were simply better in some areas. I found out that I need to be stronger and have more muscle. What the season showed me is what I need to be better at, and that’s what I’m trying to focus on.”
Continued; the odds are against Rychlovsky clawing his way into the Red Wings’ pool of top prospects, but he’s definitely going to be better-prepared to “be a bigger badass” due to his mental and physical preparation.
