Column: Are the Chicago Blackhawks being too conservative by not keeping their top prospects in the NHL?

In any sport, few things invite a challenge more than a rookie.

Which one do you draft? Who’s the right coach? What’s the right system?

But most debatable of all: When do you throw him or her to the wolves?

That particularly comes into play with sports such as baseball and hockey, in which most players’ paths to the big leagues carry them through the minors — and in some cases back and forth for years.

And here’s the conundrum, as it pertains to public scrutiny, for anyone whose job is to map prospects’ development: Keep them in the minors, you’re stunting their potential; bring them up too soon, you’re destroying their development.

The Chicago Blackhawks may have wrestled with such a decision last week when they reassigned Lukas Reichel to Rockford on Friday after he turned in clearly his best three games in Chicago to date.

Who knows what prompted general manager Kyle Davidson to arrange an impromptu scrum with reporters Saturday, but Davidson felt the urge to explain his guiding philosophy about Reichel in particular and prospects in general.

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“It’s an organizational philosophy … but everything is case by case,” Davidson said. “Let’s (be honest), we’re chasing most games here and I don’t think that’s necessarily conducive to extremely positive development. There’s great situations in Rockford where our young players have to go out and defend a league and defend close games and they get opportunities to play and score and come back from tight games against other really good teams.

“It’s not necessarily a blanket philosophy moving forward, but we’re just going to make the best decision with the information and situations we have now, and that’s what we think it is right now.”

The thing is, the situation in Chicago is likely to change, and then we’ll see how ardent the Hawks are about that doctrine.

One reason Reichel was called up for four games over the last month and a half is injuries.

What happens in the likelihood the Hawks start trading veterans? Someone has to replace them and possibly let it ride the rest of the season.

The Hawks probably will rotate defensemen in such a case, but who among the current IceHogs is going to push Reichel?

Reichel dealt with the disappointment of not making the roster out of training camp and continues to say the right things about making the most of his time in Rockford, but he never has shied away from saying he has earned an extended run in the NHL and thinks he’s better served learning with the Hawks.

“I try to play as much as I can in the (NHL), and every game you get experience,” he said last week. “Even when you don’t play good, you try to focus on what you can do better — watch video. It helps a lot.”

There’s a lot Reichel can gain from being around coach Luke Richardson and his staff — which includes former Hawks interim coach and IceHogs coach Derek King — every day.

Richardson is forming the building blocks of his system and locker-room culture, and it would be good to get Reichel, presumably a future leader and conveyor of Richardson’s message, in on the ground floor.

That also applies to defenseman Isaak Phillips, who celebrated a career milestone Saturday with his first NHL goal amid the Hawks getting railroaded by the Seattle Kraken.

But Richardson, a first-year coach, is deferring to his boss’s game plan: He’ll deal with the cards as they’re dealt.

“I’ve had them in training camp,” Richardson said. “Philly has been here for a bit, Reichel has been here four games and some practices and exhibition games and probably more later in the season. This is pretty much the plan I was told. We were going to flip-flop some guys and try to have a better team in Rockford this year and let these guys win and understand how they can push to win more and have bigger roles in that area.

“And then when they come up here, try to translate that through (to the NHL level), whether it’s a few games this year or the whole year next year or half the year next year, whatever it is for each individual player. My job is just whatever we feel, the management — and they always include me — but they have a plan in mind to have that rotation when there’s (an) opening and not bring a bunch of young guys and have games like last game where it gets out of control and it fails and you have anxiety and you can’t even play to the skill level that you have.”

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Among the skaters who have split time this season between Rockford and Chicago, defenseman Filip Roos logged the most games (15) in Chicago, though he hasn’t played with the Hawks since Dec. 6 as they want him to find more consistency.

Goalie Arvid Söderblom also appeared in 15 games, and the Hawks praised his calm in handling 13 starts against elite competition after being pressed into duty because of injuries. He has been back in Rockford since Dec. 19.

“We’re doing the right thing, and I like how management is approaching it,” Richardson said. “They always keep me informed. They ask my opinion, but I think it’s already been set, how we want to go forward with this movement. From what I’ve seen, guys have come up and done well, and that’s what we want.

“Now we want to get (defenseman Ian) Mitchell back in in the next couple games and get him playing two or three games in a row at least, not just one game and then out. So that’s why we wanted to let Philly have two or three games to build confidence. … The position is tough and it’s a fast game.”

“Potential” is a terrific attribute ascribed to many young players, deservedly or not.

“Confidence” is a much more fragile attribute at this stage and one the Hawks are handling with kid gloves.