Stan Bowman is kicking trade tires on frustrated Chicago Blackhawks forward Lukas Reichel, who doesn’t fit with the current regime, but where the German-born winger would slide in here and what they would be giving up is a thorny issue.

The Edmonton Oilers GM picked Reichel 17th overall in the 2020 draft when he was the Hawks’ manager, but the 23-year-old has spun his wheels the last two years and the Hawks don’t see him in their top nine. He’s a failed first-rounder for them, after what looked like a breakout 15 points with seven goals in his first 23 games for Chicago three seasons ago. They’ve wanted to see more fire in his engine, more regularly, but it’s come and gone, maybe because he’s lost his confidence.

His ice time hasn’t been bad, almost 14 minutes a game last season. But sometimes he’s been top six, sometimes fourth line. Sometimes sitting out.

Is it worth investigating from the Oilers end? Probably. Bowman has done some nice work since he became GM — trades for Ty Emberson and Vasily Podkolzin, dealing for Jake Walman, getting goalie Connor Ingram for nothing, replenishing the prospect pool. So, why not Reichel? He has a dog in this fight.

Reichel was one of the first three forward names picked for Germany’s 2026 Olympic team along with Leon Draisaitl and Tim Stutzle, even if he’s the ever-present first-rounder who needs a change of scenery. So there’s that.

But Hawks GM Kyle Davidson likes his younger draft picks Oliver Moore and Ryan Greene better today than Reichel, who has shown glimpses of his skill level, but not often enough for their liking.

“Clearly rushed to the league. He’ll get a second chance. He has enough skill and smarts, not a real big guy. Not a fourth-line guy,” said an NHL pro scout.

The Hawks blundered with Dylan Strome, another first-rounder they had traded for from Arizona, giving him away to Washington where he’s now first-line centre.

So there’s a lesson to be learned with young players. While many don’t get it, elsewhere, some eventually do.

Chicago could lose Reichel on waivers for nothing on Sunday, when NHL teams have to send in their list of guys going to the minors. You would think they would want to get something for Reichel, but here’s the rub: they already have nine picks in the 2026 draft, so what’s, say, a third-rounder in a trade? The Oilers don’t have a fourth in 2026, the same pick they gave up for another struggling first-round pick, Podkolzin, in 2024.

The Oilers would almost surely rather a dollar-in, dollar-out to trade for Reichel, who has a $1.2 million AAV for this season then becomes a restricted free-agent in 2026. But maybe the Hawks don’t want a warm body, even, hypothetically, a young defenceman like Emberson, who played 76 games for the Oilers last season as the sixth defenceman and nine more in the playoffs. He should interest them with their weak blue line.

On paper, the Oilers might have a replacement for Emberson in Alec Regula, a similar-aged right-shot defenceman, although whether Regula is ready for the NHL today, even after a strong camp, is debatable.

Emberson played almost every regular-season game for a much better Oilers team last season than the Hawks, and makes a shade more, at $1.3 million AAV, than Reichel, but for two seasons. The Hawks back-end is their weak link. They have training camp invite Matt Grzelcyk, who could get a contract.

Bottom line: Hawks’ GM Davidson is not a Reichel cheerleader. Reichel is not his draft pick. He was his predecessor Bowman’s choice. He was playing in the DEL for the Berlin Polar Bears when drafted by the Hawks — three spots after the Oilers took Dylan Holloway. In their view today, Reichel doesn’t fit in a high-end role and they have prospects today they like better. That’s their right.

Reichel has played 169 NHL games with only 54 points, clearly numbers that do not jump off the page for a first-rounder but, you know what they say? First-round picks often need traction with a new team. Bowman has fellow countryman Draisaitl here to maybe help, although they brought in another German forward, Dominik Kahun, a few years back and that didn’t work, at all, with Kahun in Switzerland now.

The downside with Reichel: He’s only 170 pounds, so another small forward with the Oilers already working in Matt Savoie this season. And there’s Quinn Hutson, also 170, who has played five pre-season games. That might be overkill in the Tale of the Tape.

But, they’re trying to add to their talent pool after trading so many draft picks.

Here’s the book on Reichel from another source.

Great skater, high-end skill. One of the few guys in Chicago who can actually enter the zone with any speed but once he gets in there, things change. He’s had trouble processing to make plays, maybe a lack of confidence, maybe a red flag. For sure, he was a high-end player when drafted, good enough to be playing pro in the DEL as a teenager. But Davidson is not a believer. He’s had two full seasons of proof.

Worth a flyer in a trade, off his age and skating ability? Yes.

Where he would fit here in a trade, that’s the big question, even with his talent untapped, for now. They are talking to the Hawks, but they may not be the only team sniffing around. First-rounders always have cachet.

The Oilers might only keep 12 forwards on their opening night roster and eight defencemen because they are nervous that Regula might get claimed — possibly by Boston, who lost him in the first place — on waivers if they want to send the 25-year-old to Bakersfield to get some games after he missed all of last season. So, not a lot of forward room for adds.

In terms of younger players, they’re already trying to find a spot for 21-year-old rookie winger Ike Howard on left wing, deciding whether he can start here or he goes to Bakersfield to play top minute games.

And there’s Savoie in the mix on right wing to start the season.

Again, adding a young player like Reichel makes sense for his talent level and trying to add skill, with speed, to the organization’s pool. It might be worth the gamble, certainly worth a conversation with the Hawks. But could they get another supposedly failed first-rounder who turns out as good as Podkolzin?

Well, that’s another story.

This ‘n that: Oilers goalie Matt Tomkins, who signed a two-year, two-way free-agent deal this summer guaranteed $400,000 to play in the minors to be the No. 3 in the organization, cleared waivers Wednesday and is off to Bakersfield. He might not be that thrilled with the addition of Connor Ingram in the Utah trade to share net duties on the farm, but that’s business. Ingram is from the same small Saskatchewan town of Imperial, as Knoblauch. How’s that for irony? … Oilers recalled forwards Connor Clattenburg, James Hamblin and Viljami Marjala from Bako for the exhibition game in Seattle, with Noah Philp and David Tomasek sick.