Robert Reichel started playing at the highest level as young as 16. Nobody could imagine a junior national selection that excluded him. He became the only player in history to win the points race before the age of 18 in the European Championship as well as in the World Junior Championship. Only in 1993 were his records beaten by Swede Peter Forsberg.
In the 1989-90 season, with Litvinov, he came of age and scored 41 goals in 44 league matches and collected 78 points and became the best shooter and most productive player. He was immediately invited to the senior World Championship.
The national team's young offense Jaromir Jagr, Robert Reichel and Robert Holik went into the tournament full of confidence. When leaving for the NHL at the end of the season, Reichel was considered the greatest talent in the country. According to many people, he was the one with all the prerequisites to have a great career and achieve stardom even more than Jagr.
When he arrived in the NHL in the summer of 1990, he brought the Calgary Flames an explosive style and scored many goals. In his first two seasons he scored close to 20 goals, and in the next two years he doubled his output. In the 1993-94 season he led the team with 93 point. Even during the next season, which began late because of the lockout, Reichel played for a German team, the Frankfurt Lions, and maintained his high points tally per game.
However, a dispute over a new contract hindered his further progress. The matter had to go to arbitration. When the court failed to comply with Reichel's demands, he returned to Frankfurt and racked up a remarkable 101 points in 46 games to become the most productive player in the German league.
He was one of the workhorses on the national team, which this time won its first World Championship title in 11 years. Yet, in the NHL Reichel never progressed in the playoffs beyond the first round. Neither with Calgary, where he returned for the 1996-97 season, nor with the New York Islanders to whom he was traded, nor with the Phoenix Coyotes whom he joined at the end of the 1998-99 season.
Perhaps the most glorious moment in his career came during what the Czechs consider the greatest tournament of the century the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. It was Reichel who beat Patrick Roy in a shootout during the semifinals with Canada. Dominik Hasek did not let one goal through and the Czechs advanced a step further in the competition for a gold medal.
He improved the team's play tremendously. Before his arrival, the team was hovering somewhere on the lower half of the standings. However, from time to time he had to quit playing because of injuries. From the very start he made no secret of the fact that he had another goal in mind to help Litvinov win its first home title.
After playing in Europe to be closer to his daughter, the Toronto Maple Leafs acquired Reichel's rights and he joined the Leafs for the start of the 2001-02 season and went on to play three seasons with the club before opting to return home in 2004-05.
Throughout his international career, Reichel has represented his homeland on numerous fronts including; World Junior Championships (1988-1990), World Championships (1990-1992, 1996-1998, 2000-01 and 2003), Canada Cup (1991), World Cup (1996 and 2004) and Winter Olympics (1998 and 2002).
