Player Discussion: Erik Cernak

[Werewolf]

Sergachev to Syracuse? Why, because he doesn’t have a goal? Sergachev is playing fine. He finds the net and suddenly he is playing “better” ... he is fine and is generating opportunities, he is not getting hemmed in, he moves the puck via skating or passing out of zone. He’ll have some TOS but that is expected with a defenseman who likes and needs the puck like him.

 

[Hinterland]

Sergachev and Coburn are both playing well. As an experiment would also like to see:

Hedman - Coburn
McDonagh - Cernak
Sergachev - Stralman

Two massive guys that can skate on the first pairing would be great shutdown pair and Hedman can do his offensive thing. Stralman can babysit Sergachev and bring Serg back to his natural side.

Sergachev is playing well? What did I miss? He was a lot better last season...very inconsistent and without poise or purpose. This shouldn't be his standart and a proper reset will help him

 

[Whoshattenkirkshoes]

Ok so Girardi to me has been solid for what he is. Let’s say he does come out of the line up. Wouldn’t we rather have Stralman with McDonagh? Especially for the playoffs?

 

[CupsOverCash]

Knowing this team we probably send Cernak back to Syracuse and play the vets. Cernak will be a full timer next year. Be the first call up on D.

 

[LightningStrikes]

Knowing this team we probably send Cernak back to Syracuse and play the vets. Cernak will be a full timer next year. Be the first call up on D.

That's the way it goes a lot of the time. Then again, Point or even Dotchin stayed on the team once management was convinced. So we'll see!

 

[CupsOverCash]

That's the way it goes a lot of the time. Then again, Point or even Dotchin stayed on the team once management was convinced. So we'll see!

I mean I like the way he plays. Hes probably what our D needs. I just dont think our vets have played poorly enough to have him in their place. I hope we play the best person for the job and to win. Just wonder if we go the conservative route and just go with vets instead.

 

[Sky04]

Ok so Girardi to me has been solid for what he is. Let’s say he does come out of the line up. Wouldn’t we rather have Stralman with McDonagh? Especially for the playoffs?

Of course you'd have that pair together when healthy unless you're some Cernak fanboy who needs to staple him to McDonagh.

 

[Sky04]

Knowing this team we probably send Cernak back to Syracuse and play the vets. Cernak will be a full timer next year. Be the first call up on D.

Of course that's the most likely path, it's not like Cernak is putting us over the top in anyway when we get a much better stralman back, he got much needed games and proved he's capable, he'll be on the starting roster next year when contract politics work in his favor.

 

[The Macho King]

Of course that's the most likely path, it's not Cernak is putting us over the top in anyway when we get much better stralman back, he got much needed games and proved he's capable, he'll be on the starting roster next year when contract politics work in his favor.

Yeah - right now he showed that we don't need to panic if one of our RD goes down. That's a good thing. And with 77 and 27 we're pretty good on the left-side too.

Contract politics is what they is. Cernak doesn't have to pass through waivers. He's young. He now knows what it takes to make it in the NHL. He might be a *slight* upgrade on Girardi at the moment (but it is slight), but considering he is going to get opportunities to lead, get PP and PK and top pairing minutes in Syracuse, it's best for him right now.

He'll get his shot next year full-time. And he may be brought on the roster in the playoffs since we don't have to worry about cap or contract limits then. And he'll be up the second someone gets a f***ing stubbed toe. This happens all the time with prospects. Unless you're Brayden Point you tend to spend some time rubber-banding up and down.

 

[BowDownToVasilevskiy]

Sergachev and Coburn are both playing well. As an experiment would also like to see:

Hedman - Coburn
McDonagh - Cernak
Sergachev - Stralman

Two massive guys that can skate on the first pairing would be great shutdown pair and Hedman can do his offensive thing. Stralman can babysit Sergachev and bring Serg back to his natural side.

Have we ever tried Sergachev and Stralman together?

 

[The Macho King]

Have we ever tried Sergachev and Stralman together?

Beginning of last season Stralman babysat Serge a good bit.

 

[Lord Stan 2020]

all i got to say is i underestimated this one hes a stud

 

[TeslaCoilFan]

Have we ever tried Sergachev and Stralman together?

Strålman babysat Sergachev for the majority of last season, up until the trade deadline. Was a great combo as Strålman was able to cover Sergy's rookie mistakes and help teach him better defense, but it did keep Sergachev sheltered.

Once we got Mac, Strålman was back up with Hedman and Sergachev was moved down with Coburn until it was realized that Mac/G sucked (only took about 3/4 games) and so McStrals was born.

 

[DFC]

I don't think we're gonna send him down. I'm not entirely sure how that'll work, but he looks like he's earned Cooper's trust, and that's not the easiest thing in the world. I kind of think he's going to replace Girardi with Hedman. I just have no idea how we're going to make it work.

 

[Whoshattenkirkshoes]

Knowing this team we probably send Cernak back to Syracuse and play the vets. Cernak will be a full timer next year. Be the first call up on D.

If Cernak doesn't start playing like crap he has pretty much already won a spot

 

[Whoshattenkirkshoes]

Of course that's the most likely path, it's not like Cernak is putting us over the top in anyway when we get a much better stralman back, he got much needed games and proved he's capable, he'll be on the starting roster next year when contract politics work in his favor.

According to people in the hockey world it is in fact not the most likely path for Cernak

 

[Sky04]

I don't think we're gonna send him down. I'm not entirely sure how that'll work, but he looks like he's earned Cooper's trust, and that's not the easiest thing in the world. I kind of think he's going to replace Girardi with Hedman. I just have no idea how we're going to make it work.

I don't see why we would shoot ourselves in the foot and not send him down when healthy. The next option is trade KK because that guarantees no more playing time for him. Like Macho said going back down doesn't hurt Cernak one bit, we're in massive cap crunch next season and will need every good contract you can get, and Koekkoek is just that. He has looked for the most part very serviceable on the bottom pairing and showed bright spots in his brief appearance this season.

The goalies haven't been great but the defense has also performed poorly since Stralman went down, if we're bringing Stralman back that's all the more need for cheap servicable defenseman. We benefit more giving icetime to Koekkoek right now and fully evaluating him over the marginal benefit you get from Cenerak as opposed to Girardi, Cernak is already a given for the next season. If you don't bring Stralman back you dip into either free agency, trade for someone elses cheap unwanted defenseman or roll 3 rookies and a developing Sergachev.

The best option is to give KK more playing time right now, if he blows then we can scratch/trade him and call up Cernak again but either way he'll likely be going for at least one more trip back down.

 

[Sky04]

I don't think we're gonna send him down. I'm not entirely sure how that'll work, but he looks like he's earned Cooper's trust, and that's not the easiest thing in the world. I kind of think he's going to replace Girardi with Hedman. I just have no idea how we're going to make it work.

Well lets go through the options, Hedman, McDonagh, Stralman are guaranteed each night they can play. Scratching vets won't sit well considering both are in contract years and really neither have played poorly enough to be scratched, there's zero chance a rookie on ELC who isn't blowing the league away will get started over a performing vet, it's the other way around. So then it's Sergachev and Cernak who rotate the press box if no ones traded, counterproductive to say the least..... now you could trade Coburn who's boosted his value considerably but that makes us worse and we're in a cup contending year so that makes no sense. Or we trade Girardi but lets be real no teams going take him, even Edmonton.

 

[DFC]

Yeah, it's just that, when Coop finds a guy he trusts, we tend to figure out a way to make it work. It looks to me like we're showing a lot of trust in Cernak. I'm not seeing any logical way to make it happen either. Maybe all this smoke with LA is an attempt to figure it out. An LA-TB deal makes no sense to me, so maybe they're trying to get creative.

 

[Rschmitz]

If there is a deal that makes a lot of sense, they can consider dealing SKK. Incredibly foolish to deal anyone else, wish they would just commit to a rotation and keep guys fresh.

 

[Shoresy Snipes]

Didn't Cernak get called up to replace the injured Stralman? If so, does that not mean we have to send someone back to Syracuse once Stralman is activated again? Who else other than Cernak could we send down without waivers?

 

[Vasilevskiy]

It is an easy choice to send Cernak down when Strals is back. He's just a casualty of having too much depth. Next year he will be playing in the starting lineup as a regular.
He's not a clear upgrade over anybody but Koekkoek, I rather have him be #1D in Syracuse than benched like KK is.

 

[LightningStrikes]

Would they try and waive Koekkoek?

 

[Rschmitz]

Would they try and waive Koekkoek?

They would lose him

 

[LightningStrikes]

They would lose him

So?