Montreal Canadiens: What Kerby Rychel brings to the roster

The Montreal Canadiens called up Kerby Rychel from the Laval Rocket Friday night after high-level of production since coming over in the trade.

How good does the Tomas Plekanec trade look now? Not only did the Montreal Canadiens add a fourth second-round pick to their pool ahead of the 2018 NHL Draft, but prospects who have (and will) see time with the team. Now you could argue that if the team was in a different position, for example, not as injured, that it wouldn’t come as fast for either of them. However, it was nice to see Rinat Valiev debut with the Habs, and Kerby Rychel will get his chance soon.

The Montreal Canadiens recalled Rychel from the Laval Rocket ahead of their game against the Binghamton Devils. The 23-year-old was going into that match with 8 goals and 4 assists in 14 games with the Rocket, immediately standing out as one of the team’s best players. Of those, two have come from the power play, while the rest were at even strength.

When looking at Rychel’s season as a whole, including his 55 games with the Toronto Marlies, he as 18 goals and 24 assists in 69 games. Not as high as his 52 point season the year before, but still a nice season offensively none the less.

However, his AHL numbers don’t matter as much anymore. Now is finally getting another crack at playing in the NHL.

Rychel hasn’t been in the show since February 27th, 2016, and that was back with the Columbus Blue Jackets. The left-winger was looking for a fresh start in the trade to Toronto, but never got a look with the main club. Let’s see what Rychel has now.

Has Rychel improved from the struggling first-round pick that he was with the Blue Jackets? 100%. Back then, he looked to make the fancy or ‘cute’ play instead of keeping it simple. Additionally, Rychel would go for the big hit at the wrong time which would hurt the team more than help them. His skating has also taken a massive jump allowing him to get to here he needs to be.

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The California native possesses NHL size where he can work the boards well and maintain position in the slot for offence, which is where a lot of his goals come from. That will make Rychel a solid option on the power play if Claude Julien gives him a look there. What he needs to do to stay successful is work and move his feet.

Rychel is at his most dangerous when he fights for pucks and wins battles all over the ice. We all know that Julien prioritizes players who have that type of game, and he can quickly fall in the coach’s good fortunes if he keeps that going.

It’ll be interesting to see when Rychel makes his debut with the Montreal Canadiens. He’s already joined the team in Pittsburgh, but there’s been no confirmation on whether he plays or not. If he does, expect Julien to ease him into the lineup, most likely starting him on the fourth line leaving one of Nicolas Deslauriers or Daniel Carr as a healthy scratch.

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Rychel has a say in where he plays though. There’s always been hope that he could become at the very least, a top-nine player. We’ve seen Julien reward those having good performances with playing them higher in the lineup. Rychel has the keys to the Youppi! car, let’s see how far it goes.