Flyers prospect Alex Ciernik signs ATO with Phantoms
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms are adding an exciting young talent as they push for the playoffs and hope for some Calder Cup contention. No, not that one, it’s the other one.
Made official after a couple days of rumors, the Phantoms have signed 20-year-old winger Alex Ciernik to an amateur try-out for the remainder of the 2024-25 season.
Ciernik was drafted in the fourth round of the 2023 NHL Draft and since then has been bouncing around the second division in Sweden, the HockeyAllsvenskan, with multiple teams. After scoring at a decent clip in juniors during his draft year, Ciernik moved to Vasterviks IK and scored four goals and 14 points in 26 games. And then just this season, moved to Nybro Vikings IF, where he scored 11 goals and 23 points in 46 games.
The young winger’s early career has been marred with injury as he sustained a concussion during the 2023-24 season that cut his year in half. And he admitted to himself that he tried to accelerate the recovery process to represent Slovakia at the 2024 World Junior Championship that season.
At rookie camp last July, Ciernik explained his setback and how that season went for him.
“It wasn’t the easiest,” he told Flyers media. “I didn’t play for half the year with the head injuries. It was a little bit lonely, a little tough at times, but I’m just happy to be back here, back with the guys, and be on the ice and work out and all that fun stuff.”
Ciernik’s bounce back was scoring half a point per game for a team that finished ninth out of 14 teams in the overall standings and was the team’s fifth-highest scorer.
The Flyers have not officially signed Ciernik to his entry-level contract. By the Phantoms bringing him in on an amateur try-out, they can have a close look at the player for the remainder of the AHL season — certainly a level above where he was just playing in Sweden — and then determine what the next steps should be for what was an exciting prospect at the time the Flyers selected him two years ago. To remain with the organization full-time next season, Ciernik will either sign his ELC with the Flyers (and take up one of the contract slots in the 50-contract limit for the team), or possibly sign an AHL-only deal with the Phantoms to keep playing that level of hockey.
With him missing so much time, it is understandable that the Flyers are being cautious with these next steps and don’t want to commit to anything quite yet.
The Phantoms have nine regular season games left in their season and this important stretch of games starts with a road trip up to Canada to face the Belleville Senators and the Laval Rocket this weekend....
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