Tag Archives: Austin Czarnik

Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, NHL Entry Draft, Rumors, Trades

The Draft Day Trade That Never Happened

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Top of the mornin’ to Y’all! Are you getting more excited as July 1st draws nearer? Or perhaps as an Oilers fan, you’re getting more and more nervous wondering what Chiarelli might do.

I think for me, I’m a bit anxious at the moment. I don’t truly feel that the Oilers are done altering the roster. I’d like them to be and the reason for that is their new plan of doing nothing or doing very little is working and I don’t want Chiarelli and his staff to deviate from that plan of action.

Kurt Leavins wrote a piece earlier that leans to the above a bit. I recommend you read it for sure.

BARGAIN SHOPPING FOR FREE AGENTS

So whether you listen to Bob Stauffer or you read Lowetide, it looks like the Oilers are going to have between $3.5M and $5M in cap room. Not a lot mind you but not insufficient enough to prevent the team from adding a few quality vets.

My personal favorites as you’re reading this are:

  • Austin Czarnik – RW – Little guy with skills up the wazoo.
  • Tobias Rieder – LW/RW – Not the cheapest option but an excellent 2-way threat.
  • Curtis McKenzie – LW – Sandpaper galore. A younger version of Matt Hendricks.
  • Marek Hrivik – C/LW – 6’2″ and too good to play AHL. Skilled bottom-6 option?

Reckon any of those players will come in under a million per year? Rieder for sure won’t. I don’t even know why he’d even be an option given they unsavory conditions in which they separated before. I’ve seen Duclair’s name pop up too and I don’t know if he’d be an option either. The kid is going to be on his 4th team before he turns 23.

THE RUMOURS

So as I present these to you, I need to preface this by saying, believe what you believe. I’m only a guy who happens to know someone within a professional hockey organization. I’m not an insider per se but I hear things and I like to pass them on to you. All of this could come true or none of it could and it’s more likely the latter because things change all of the time, as you’re about to read. My advice, treat this like water cooler banter and don’t take it too seriously.

  • The Oilers are looking into bringing Brandon Davidson back.
  • There was a trade on the table for the 10th overall pick… 10th overall to the Hurricanes for Justin Faulk

Man, could you imagine if Evan Bouchard hadn’t dropped to the Oilers? The repercussions of acquiring Justin Faulk could’ve been staggering because they would’ve definitely had to have made more trades just to become cap compliant…

What was the subsequent trade they would’ve to have made to get the cap in order I wonder?

The hockey gods did us a solid last weekend.

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Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Rumors, Trades

The Rumoured Offer for Pat Maroon

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The Oilers have an offer on the table for Patrick Maroon from the Boston Bruins. It is Austin Czarnik and a 2nd round pick. No word on if that pic was for the upcoming draft or the next.

Interesting eh?

I was hoping for a player of a bit more significance but let’s look at this Czarnik kid and maybe our opinions will turn faster than an analytics blogger who once described Peter Chiarelli as a very smart man and now refers to his supports as the Flat Earthers of hockey. Love you too G!


So just from looking at his numbers alone, we can see that there’s offense in them hills. Something that’s really working for him is that size doesn’t seem to be much of an issue anymore. Not that that has been an issue for him in the past but the little guy is making a return!

I also like that he’s right-handed and after the Oilers trade Mark Letestu, they’ll need another righty on the team.

Now, I’m not sure if he’ll be a centre at the NHL level. I think he’s more suited for the wing to be honest but then again Desharnais isn’t that big and Letestu isn’t either.

At the minor league level he is 5th in the AHL for pts/game with a 1.1 in all situations (25th 5×5 w/ .59 pts/game) but most of his points are garnered on the PP. As for his PP pts/game he sits at 3rd in the AHL with .44. These numbers are for players who’ve played more than 30 games and I got them at this fantastic website called prospect-stats.com

So how about some scouting reports on Czarnik?

In Czarnik’s 56 games, he’s been a terrific “possession” player, for lack of a better work. He holds a 53.8 CF%, and a 53.2 xGF%. – Stanley Cup of Chowder (source)

This ties into the new possession team that Chiarelli has been building since he was hired. So I dig that.

If Czarnik continues to improve at the AHL level he may not be far from getting a long look with the Bruins. Small and crafty his game follows the mould of Gaudreau or Kane while not being quite so polished. Injuries will be a risk for such an undersized centre, however, smaller forwards are having success in today’s NHL. – Dobber’s Prospects (source)

I’m not sure he’ll get to Kane and Gaudreau status but I would expect a player with the offensive acumen that Czarnik has to be better than say Drake Caggiula. Maybe they’re different players though.

The bottom line is that some guys can skate fast if that is their primary focus. For Czarnik, being that fast is easy enough that he can start thinking two or three steps ahead of everyone else. – SBN College Hockey (source) 

Hockey IQ I’ve decided is going to be the attribute that will be of the utmost importance going forward in hockey. The physical tools can be developed and fine tuned but hockey IQ will be paramount in the future.

Lastly, Czarnik is an RFA at season’s end and he’s only making a shade under 700k this year. The fact that he’s played 3/4 of a season in the NHL will not help him make more than that 700k in my opinion and IF this deal does go down, I reckon Czarnik’s new contract will fall under the category of “Value Contracts” for whatever team he’s playing for.

I don’t think he’s banged up as much as the team is leading us to believe. It’s trade deadline on Monday and Maroon is heading out. He’s being rested for that reason. Now if his effort is in question and they’re sitting him for that, I take issue there. This season there have been plenty other players who should’ve sat for less-than-satisfactory performances.

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