Is it time for the Chicago Blackhawks to trade Lukas Reichel?

Lukas Reichel has yet to live up to the high expectations he had when he was one of the Chicago Blackhawks top prospects.

He was once believed to be a potential face of the franchise when the Hawks selected him in the first round of the 2020 draft. Since Connor Bedard took over that title, Reichel has played like he has already been forgotten about in the team's long-term plans.

He failed to nail down the team's No. 2 center last season and was eventually demoted to Rockford with all his struggles. This season, well, he has carved out a role on the fourth line, but him centering the bottom line was not exactly what the franchise has envisioned for the immensely offensively gifted player.

Now his time with the Blackhawks might be running out.

NHL insider Frank Seravalli reports that other teams are calling about Reichel's availability.

Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson could decide that he has had enough of Reichel's inconsistency and start over with a different prospect that is picked up from the draft pick compensation the Hawks likely would get for Reichel.

The trouble with giving up Reichel so soon is that there is still time for Lukas to fulfill his potential. He is still 22. At the very least, there is still time in his career to be better than a fourth-line center or winger.

Playing on the fourth line surprisingly seems to be his floor.

That is a surprise considering being the grinder, hard-hitting player that is required of a fourth line forward is just not his game. However, there seems to be a comfort he feels on the ice when skating with Pat Maroon. Maybe having a big veteran forward gives Reichel the confidence to skate with a bit more focus.

He has shown he can be a replacement-level NHL player. That is problem. He is supposed to be a top six forward.

Reichel's problem has been playing with consistency when he gets moved up.

In the Hawks previous game, he centered the third line. and did not even register a shot. He did pick up an assist against Calgary when he was one of the third line's wingers skating with Frank Nazar and Colton Dach.

However, Nazar just got bumped up to the top line and had his best game against the Predators as a pro and established some good chemistry with Connor Bedard. It is not looking the Reichel-Nazar-Dach combination will be revisited anytime soon.

Anytime he goes up to the top six, he typically regresses as player and the cycle of getting bumped down starts all over again. At some point, Davidson has to feel the urge to break this vicious cycle.

Although, the franchise shares some blame in Reichel's struggles as the club has always handled Reichel's development strangely.

He got a taste of the NHL in 2021-2022 which is fine. The problem was his second professional season. He showed some promise the next season in a couple of callups but got demoted once it became clear he might screw up the tank for Bedard.

Prime development NHL ice time for Reichel was wasted for the sake of tanking.

Instead of pairing Reichel up with Bedard last season, the team tried to make him a center and that was disaster. Now, Lukas shares some of the blame as he been known to get down on himself when he is struggling and lose confidence way too easily.

He keeps failing to take advantage of his opportunities to be more than a fourth line player every time.

Then he ended up being a healthy scratch once the calendar turned to 2025 for some odd decision about needing focus and intensity when he actually had two assists and four shots on goal before the benching. The only reason he likely will not being going back to sitting in the press box anytime soon is Philipp Kurashev is buried deep in the doghouse.

At some point, Davidson must decide if the forward is nothing more than single-digit goal scorer like he has been his entire career. He has three goals so far this and five last season. Not exactly the production envisioned when he was being touted as one of the foundational pieces of the next great Hawks team.

You can find those type of NHL players anywhere, so it might be worth cashing out his asset status even if it is for pennies on the dollar.