Agreed. Pay the kid, give him some peace of mind.

If Davidson could get Reichel for 8 years with an AAV of $3MM, he should be arrested for robbery as that would be a better deal than Vlasic got. Short term though, I agree with 2-years at $1MM-$1.5MM. Showed some great flashes but still has a lot to prove.

Maybe, Reichel will have to play ALOT better than last year for that. Could he? Absolutely. Will he? I very much hope so.

I don't see the franchise mode occurring. I don't think either side really wants that. You could have. Jesperi Kotkaniemi situation.

I think what you have above is the most likely. Give him some piece of mind. That's life changing money for anyone normal. He's at the big club permanently too. I'm all for it.

I mean he definitely hasn't earned the 2.1M that you have here. We have all the cap space so it doesn't really matter, but just going based on what he's proven to be worth i'd say 1 year 950k. Gives him the chance to proves he's a full time contributing NHL'er.

I've had Reichel pegged at 2x$2m, so we are in agreement. Shows Lukas Hawks still have confidence in him.

The franchise mode is definitely a joke 🤣

I wouldn’t be surprised to see him get his QO, at least in terms of what he earned this year. I’m all for the hawks laying the groundwork for an extension down the road by paying him over value right now. Not too much of course, but I think 2 X 2.1

If he were arbitration eligible, he would most likely command around $1.5-2M, given his total production over the last few years. His struggles in the first 3/4's of the year weren't entirely his fault, either. They asked him to bulk up a substantial amount over the summer, which he did, and then they asked him to jump straight into a full time role in the NHL as a top 6 center, which he doesn't have a ton of experience playing.

He was drafted as a "center" and has certainly tried to play center and been put there a few times, and I kept hearing the rhetoric the last few seasons that he would or did play center for Rockford, but I watched a lot of their games the last few years and he almost never did. I don't know where the disconnect is, if it's CHI beat writers, and/or internal communication shortcomings, but anyone who says different is just wrong because I know what I saw and it was never a center. Even in most of the games where they had him listed as a center on the line combinations, they would quickly move him back to the wing.