1999 - 2001, Polish forward Mariusz Czerkawski was one of the best players in the NHL

[Artorius Horus T]

The Islanders team was complete garbage, they were the lowest scoring team, but Mariusz was scoring lots of goals and points, was probably the fastest skater of that time in the NHL and one of the best too.

1999-00 season : 35 goals, 71 points. (Islanders scored 195 goals)
- Islanders skaters ranked 10th - 6th finished with less points combined what 71 ,
Jörgen Jönsson was 5th, with 28 points, Tim Connoly 3rd, with 32 points
Brad Isbister 2nd with 42 points


Mariusz finished 10th in NHL goals, 24th in points,
- superb for a player who played for a team like such


2000-01 season : 30 goals, 65 points (Islanders scored 185 goals)
- Mariusz was the only player with more than 20 goals and only with more points what 45 (by forwards).

30th in NHL goals and around 50th in points
- sure not as good as previous season, but still impressive for a team that scored fewest goals (again)
and this time finished dead last, with 54 losses.

Helluva player, that time forgot

Click to read more...

 

[Albatros]

The way Tyler Toffoli is one of the best players in the NHL right now.

 

[BenchBrawl]

I'll always remember him because of this:

 

[FerrisRox]

I think I'm missing the joke here.

 

[GKJ]

The question I always had about Czerkawski is how did he come through the system in Poland and how did nobody else follow it besides Oliwa?

 

[Albatros]

The question I always had about Czerkawski is how did he come through the system in Poland and how did nobody else follow it besides Oliwa?

Besides Czerkawski there were a few other Polish players going early to Sweden as well, they just weren't as talented. From Tychy juniors also Michał Garbocz moved around the same time with Czerkawski, he went on to have a fairly good pro career in France. His brother Dariusz also had a short stint in Sweden. Or Robert Kwiatkowski who eventually played lower league hockey in Germany.

Oliwa chose a different path, playing junior B hockey in Canada. Marcin Ćwikła tried the same route, but he didn't end up with more than a few games in the ECHL.

Adam Borzęcki first went to Sweden, then to the major juniors in Québec, followed by several years touring the North American farm leagues and finally a solid pro career in the German second league.

 

[GKJ]

Besides Czerkawski there were a few other Polish players going early to Sweden as well, they just weren't as talented. From Tychy juniors also Michał Garbocz moved around the same time with Czerkawski, he went on to have a fairly good pro career in France. His brother Dariusz also had a short stint in Sweden. Or Robert Kwiatkowski who eventually played lower league hockey in Germany.

Oliwa chose a different path, playing junior B hockey in Canada. Marcin Ćwikła tried the same route, but he didn't end up with more than a few games in the ECHL.

Adam Borzęcki first went to Sweden, then to the major juniors in Québec, followed by several years touring the North American farm leagues and finally a solid pro career in the German second league.

I knew there’s guys, not by name, but one guy makes it to the NHL in 30 years, you’d think another would surface. I know it’s not the main sport in Poland, but just an oddity.

Kopitar followed the path of going to Sweden, I believe younger, and the sport seems more robust in Slovenia, but is in a similar pattern.

 

[MXD]

The way Tyler Toffoli is one of the best players in the NHL right now.

... Except Toffoli is a much better rounded player.

 

[Crosby2010]

If you did a thread making a case for Ziggy Palffy being among the best in the NHL at that time you could at least attract an audience and a discussion, but I am seeing none of it with Czerkawski. He was a classic "good player on a bad team" type of guy. I think the impact he had on the NHL was that everyone loved saying his name and how it sounded.

 

[daver]

I think I'm missing the joke here.

Did you not see "Polish" in the thread title?

 

[sr edler]

It's funny the OP is shining a negative light on Jörgen Jönsson, because if I tried to build a winning team I would much rather him being a part of the puzzle than Czerkawski. Great two-way guy, great details player, and a shoe-in on the 2006 Olympic team amongst almost double digit HHOF players.

OP also says points 10 times without attempting to delve more into the actual player, or even the dynamics of opportunity and TOI/special teams on bad teams.

Czerkawski was pretty much just a more tunnel-visioned version of Huselius.

 

[kaiser matias]

I knew there’s guys, not by name, but one guy makes it to the NHL in 30 years, you’d think another would surface. I know it’s not the main sport in Poland, but just an oddity.

Kopitar followed the path of going to Sweden, I believe younger, and the sport seems more robust in Slovenia, but is in a similar pattern.

Like the other eastern bloc countries, sport funding dried up in Poland when communism ended in 1989. A mediocre hockey program suddenly had no money, and as a result development effectively ended. This can also be seen in their showings at the World Championships: throughout the 1980s they placed around 10th overall (shuttling between the top level and B Pool), but dropped to a historic low of 14th in 1990 in 1990, and while they followed that up with two 12th place finishes in 1991 and 1992, they have never placed better than 14th since then, and have since fallen to averaging around 22nd or so overall. They last played in the top level in 2002 (which has 16 teams play), and this year (2024) will be their first time back to that level (which is aided in part by Russia and Belarus not participating).

 

[NyQuil]

When I think of Polish forwards I think of Miroslav Sikora.

The mere mention of the name Miroslav Sikora is enough to make the international hockey establishment tremble. A disputed eligibility case regarding the Polish-German hockey player went so far that a district court in Vienna decided the outcome of the 1987 IIHF World Championship in the Austrian capital.

Story #29

webarchive.iihf.com

 

[MS]

OP is an exaggeration but for 2 years Czerkawski was actually really dangerous and kind of a poor man's Markus Naslund, and the extent to which he outscored the rest of those NYI teams was notable. Getting to 11th in the NHL in goals with a supporting cast where nobody else cleared 45 points is pretty damn good.

Then he regressed back into the marginal 2nd liner with defensive problems that he was before those years.

 

[Vector]

Ah the Polish Prince. Was a fascinating oddity to me at the time.

 

[McGarnagle]

As a Bruins fan I definitely associate him with the Bruins since he started and ended his career with stints in Boston, but I just looked at the numbers and he only played 100 games across just over 3 seasons. He spent way more time on Long Island, and hit his peak around 2000.

I too would like to know more about his story, because he might be the only player I can think of who had a significant career being developed and drafted out of a non-traditional hockey country. He didn't go to Djurgardens until after he was drafted, in contrast to Kopitar who was playing in the SEL during his draft year (though he's the other major example of a guy who was raised and mostly developed in a non-hockey nation to hit it big).

So how did Harry Sinden even find him and think enough of him to draft him in the 5th round? Poland did make pool A of the World Juniors in 1990 (and were demolished by every team they played), and Czerkawski seems to have scored a lot of goals in the IIHF European Juniors in both 1990 and 1991. Probably a case of some European scout at that tournament who went to watch some other players jotting down notes to keep an eye on the one good kid on the Polish team?

Even though there probably were attempts by teams to do heavy scouting to open pipelines in recently opened markets as the cold war ended, the only other Pole drafted during the period was Oliwa who went to Ontario for his draft year and was more of a goon than a hockey player and drafted for his size. So I don't think the notoriously stingy Sinden was investing money sending amateur scouts to Tychy.

 

[GMR]

I think I'm missing the joke here.

I remember him dating some hot babes.

 

[MS]

Ah the Polish Prince. Was a fascinating oddity to me at the time.

I've mentioned before on this board how strange it is that Poland, which is sandwiched in between the old USSR, the Czech Republic and Germany (a pretty good Tier 2 nation) is just a total non-entity when it comes to hockey.

When you look at the location/history/climate it *seems* like it should be a hockey country, but it just isn't.

 

[Albatros]

I've mentioned before on this board how strange it is that Poland, which is sandwiched in between the old USSR, the Czech Republic and Germany (a pretty good Tier 2 nation) is just a total non-entity when it comes to hockey.

When you look at the location/history/climate it *seems* like it should be a hockey country, but it just isn't.

In Poland the grassroots got pretty much wiped out in the Second World War and afterwards the most important communist era state institutions weren't as eager to sponsor hockey teams. So you had a mostly regional competition between local industries emerging. Like Czerkawski's GKS Tychy, supported by local coal mines.

 

[McGarnagle]

I remember him dating some hot babes.

He married the chick from Goldeneye

 

[NYR94]

the first NHL highlight video I ever saw had Czerkawski scoring a nice goal in it as a member of the Oilers. I remember my friend downloaded it onto a floppy disk (lol) while in the computer lab in school during the early years of the internet being available in schools.

 

[Pominville Knows]

The question I always had about Czerkawski is how did he come through the system in Poland and how did nobody else follow it besides Oliwa?

Their system has simply gotten weaker so therefore Czerkawski seems more surprising now than he did back then.

 

[Hobnobs]

As a Bruins fan I definitely associate him with the Bruins since he started and ended his career with stints in Boston, but I just looked at the numbers and he only played 100 games across just over 3 seasons. He spent way more time on Long Island, and hit his peak around 2000.

I too would like to know more about his story, because he might be the only player I can think of who had a significant career being developed and drafted out of a non-traditional hockey country. He didn't go to Djurgardens until after he was drafted, in contrast to Kopitar who was playing in the SEL during his draft year (though he's the other major example of a guy who was raised and mostly developed in a non-hockey nation to hit it big).

So how did Harry Sinden even find him and think enough of him to draft him in the 5th round? Poland did make pool A of the World Juniors in 1990 (and were demolished by every team they played), and Czerkawski seems to have scored a lot of goals in the IIHF European Juniors in both 1990 and 1991. Probably a case of some European scout at that tournament who went to watch some other players jotting down notes to keep an eye on the one good kid on the Polish team?

Even though there probably were attempts by teams to do heavy scouting to open pipelines in recently opened markets as the cold war ended, the only other Pole drafted during the period was Oliwa who went to Ontario for his draft year and was more of a goon than a hockey player and drafted for his size. So I don't think the notoriously stingy Sinden was investing money sending amateur scouts to Tychy.

He raised eyebrows in WC-B as a junior he lead the team in scoring and leading Poland back to group A. My guess is that he also impressed during play in the polish league leading his team in points again as a junior. IIRC he won the golden stick that year as the league MVP.

Sinden (and other GMs) most likely heard about the kid and thought if he even sniffs the NHL it would be a good marketing ploy. Paulie Jaks was drafted in the same round as a swizz trained goalie.

I'm not sure if Sinden sent scouts or not but didn't he draft like three players from Riga the next year? Zholtok being one of them.

 

[Rpenny]

Nope. He could not play in his own zone. Petr Klima light

 

[sr edler]

I've mentioned before on this board how strange it is that Poland, which is sandwiched in between the old USSR, the Czech Republic and Germany (a pretty good Tier 2 nation) is just a total non-entity when it comes to hockey.

When you look at the location/history/climate it *seems* like it should be a hockey country, but it just isn't.

Poland's had complicated relations to all their neighbours historically speaking, so makes sense they wouldn't want to emulate them in niche sports. Also the climate in Poland is pretty mild I think. Germany's also never been very good at hockey, just mediocre to okay.