24-year-old Red Wings prospect Jakub Rychlovsky is a bit of a wild card.
The 5’10,” 181-pound winger led the Czech Extraliga in scoring with 26 goals and 46 points in 51 games in 2023-2024, but, this past season, he was only able to suit up for 38 games with the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins, posting 3 goals and 5 assists for 8 points.
Rychlovsky signed a 2-year contract with the Red Wings in the summer of 2024, so he’s bound to play in at least one more North American season, and it’s a safe assumption to suggest that he wants to improve upon his first campaign.
This evening, Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff found and has now shared an interview from Rychlovsky’s former Czech team, the “Bli Tygri Liberec,” whose Lukas Novotny and Jan Cermak discovered that Rychlovsky’s first North American season was a crash course in the tremendously difficult job that is being an AHL pro:
“Honestly, it was a tough encounter with reality when you get to know how the business works in America,” Rychlovsky said on the website of Czech club White Tigers Liberec. “It took me a while to get over it.”
His struggles with the adjustment were evident in both Rychlovsky’s health and productivity. Injuries would limit him to 38 AHL games for the Grand Rapids Griffins. His numbers were a pedestrian three goals and five assists.
“Maybe I was looking for faults in myself too much at first, rather than getting over it and not thinking about it that much,” Rychlovsky said. “After the New Year, I got injured, had to have surgery (for a lower-body injury), and that ended my season. So my impressions are kind of embarrassing. I know I didn’t play my best hockey.”
Duff notes that Rychlovsky, like so many European players, found the AHL’s punishing travel schedule to be a bit much as well…
The 24-year-old Czech forward admits he wasn’t at all prepared for the grind of the AHL. Three games in three nights, sometimes all on the road. Overnight bus trips. Broken sleep patterns. It all took a toll on his well-being.
“Traveling was extremely demanding,” Rychlovsky said. “Some matches ended at eleven in the evening, for example, and we then got on a bus and drove five hours to another city. There was also a time difference there, and we played the match from seven in the evening. My body was often confused and didn’t know if it was morning or evening.”
But the young man provides goal-scoring abilities, which the Red Wings need as much of as humanly possible, so they’re willing to forgive a difficult debut season…
And Rychlovsky told Novotny and Cermak that he’s not going to do anything less than focus on improving his own performance, and he will continue to relentlessly pursue his hopes of earning an NHL job:
What did you learn in post-season interviews?
I was told to prepare for the main camp as well as I was prepared last year. They told me I looked good, but on the other hand, I only got one preparatory match. In your head, you’re wondering if they’re telling you the truth or if you’re not supposed to believe it. The most important thing is to focus on yourself and not to deal with things around you.
Will it be important to go into the second season overseas well-prepared?
I set myself up so that I have nothing to lose. I want to make a good camp where I go day by day. Whether I get one or eight games in preparation. I want to win the best position in the team. Since I haven’t played the second half of the season, I probably won’t miss the farm. On the other hand, anything can happen. Detroit has 13 forwards on a one-way contract, so all the young players will have it very hard. Moreover, when the organization celebrates the 100th anniversary of the founding, there will be a lot of pressure on the management to make the playoffs after years. Whoever gives the best performances will play.
Rychlovsky has the chops to set up a fine North American career if he finds consistent play during the hiccuppy start-and-stop nature of the AHL season (it’s focused on back-to-back weekend games, with lots of practice time in between games), and I still believe that he’s got the gumption and self-belief with which to succeed.
Rychlovsky seems to understand that the business of hockey is a brutal one at times, and if he sets himself up to succeed, one never knows whether the Rychlovskys or the Eduards Tralmaks of the world might end up becoming important complementary pieces on the Red Wings’ roster.
One never knows, and I tend to pull for the “older guys” who have come over to the U.S. in the hopes of energizing their pro careers via NHL success–through hard work at the AHL level.
