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Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher
Cervenka, Glencross and Tanguay are our most lethal shooters I'd say.
Cervenka has been wildly inconsistent. A total nonfactor some nights. Be interesting to see if he and the team are interested in giving it another try next season.
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I don't think his skill has ever been questioned. Skill can get you some occasional good nights when all goes your way. Heck, even guys like Wellwood and Lundmark looked effective from time to time.
The thing that'll factor most into his NHL career will be how well he can learn to adapt the game to an NHL surface. There's no doubt that Cervenka is an effective player for European leagues, but he needs to continually try to translate some of the finer points of his game since it's so much harder to be in good position in the NHL.
He's improved on the conditioning front. He no longer looks dead at the end of a shift. Learning the differences between how to play in the NHL under certain conditions (tight checking, high pressure situations offensively and players willing to use their physical size when he's playing in his own end) seems to be the biggest stumbling block so far. To see if that improves I think could be worth another low salary, single year contract. Worst case scenario, he's eating popcorn most nights. But at a low salary, that's not a huge issue.
Of course, that is if he wants to continue an NHL career. It's pretty tempting for him I think to go home, play the style he's comfortable with, and dominate to a higher degree.