Peter Cehlarik’s 2016-17 was very encouraging!...just short

Evaluation:

It’s weird that a player with only 11 games of NHL play might get people thinking he’s a viable candidate for top wing talent.

Of course, if this team is the Boston Bruins, where talent at left wing is at a very exclusive premium, you might be a little more receptive to the idea.

Peter Cehlarik’s development has been a slowly upward curving hill, receiving enormously high praise in his comparable players (with Patrice Bergeron of all players listed) and performing quite well in the SHL and Allsvenskan, 2016 was Cehlarik’s first year in North America, playing primarily in Providence and balling the hell out while he was there, getting his highest point total yet in 38 points in 49 games, and the second highest scorer on the P-Bruins roster with 20.

He was so good that, in the chaos of Claude Julien’s firing, Cehlarik was called up for what became an 11 game trial run in Boston’s lineup. His part in the lineup could’ve been anywhere from replacing Tim Schaller on some nights on the fourth line to playing as Krejci’s winger, and usually doing pretty well from the eye test point of view. His best game probably endeared him quite well to fans as he assisted twice on goals during a game against Montreal, including a very slick pass to Adam McQuaid for probably the best goal he scored all year:

Unfortunately those two assists were just about as much as Cehlarik was going to get in this turbulent time, as ten games later he was pulling duty on the third line and hadn’t tallied again, and finally was sent back down in Providence...where he kept scoring and in general being pretty darn good.

Unfortunately, a shoulder injury kept him both off of the Calder Cup Playoffs and World Championships rosters for his home nation of Slovakia, ending a pretty encouraging year with disappointment.

Grade: An enthusiastic (and tentative) C

Cehlarik didn’t stick around long enough and rarely had a consistent place in the NHL lineup, but the very early returns puts him looking pretty good, all things considered. Maybe if he was called up earlier he would’ve been able to make a bigger impact, but a good camp might fix his recent fortunes next year and maybe even a whole year of Cehlarik might tell us more.

Stats - NHL:

Age: 21

Games Played: 11

Goals: none

Assists: 2

Points: 2

Final Regular Season CF%: 51.76%

Stats - AHL:

Games Played: 49

Goals: 20

Assists: 18

Points: 38