The Calgary Flames were able to get an early start on the offseason moves on Wednesday by announcing a one-year contract with former KHL standout Roman Cervenka. According to the team the deal is worth $3.775 million.
That's not exactly a small commitment for the upcoming season, and according to general manager Jay Feaster they believe he can contribute as one of their top-six forwards. The fact they were willing to commit nearly $4 million in cap space to the 26-year-old is a testament to that confidence.
“Roman is a highly skilled player with great hands, excellent vision and the ability to score goals at an elite level of play,” said Feaster in a team released statement.
“Our scouts in Europe identified him as someone who could slot into our top six forward group and play in the NHL as a top two line centre. John Weisbrod went to see him play early in the KHL Playoffs and came away confirming everything we had heard from our scouts in Europe. We made an aggressive pitch to convince him that Calgary was the perfect place for him to start his NHL career, and we are extremely pleased Roman agreed. We look forward to welcoming him to the Flames and our great city.”
Before even playing a game in the NHL he already has the sixth largest cap hit on the Flames roster for next season, trailing only Jarome Iginla, Mike Cammalleri, Jay Bouwmeester, Mark Giordano and Miikka Kiprusoff.
Cervenka spent the past two seasons playing for Omsk Avangard in the KHL, and was one of the most productive players in the league over that time scoring 54 goals to go with 46 assists in 95 games. During the 2010-11 season he led the league with 31 goals. His 23 goals this past season were good enough for fifth in the league.
How well will that translate to the NHL? From a statistical and historical perspective, Rob Vollman wrote in a Puck Prospectus article over the summer that players making the jump from the KHL to the NHL are able to retain nearly 75 percent of their goal-scoring and nearly all of their assist production.
Prior to joining the KHL Cervenka, born in Prague, spent parts of six years playing for Slavia Praha HC in the Czech Republic.
Here is a look at some of his work in the KHL:
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