The Philadelphia Flyers are doing some business as we head into the final weeks of the regular season. Their latest transaction is signing a winger prospect that has not had a good development path, to his entry-level contract.
Announced by the team on Monday afternoon, the Flyers have signed winger Alex Ciernik to a three-year entry-level contract. This is an interesting grab for a whole lot of reasons.
OFFICIAL: We have signed forward Alex Ciernik to a three-year entry-level contract beginning with the 2026-27 season. https://t.co/zCMz369uP3
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) March 23, 2026
Ciernik’s rookie deal will not start immediately and will begin next season, meaning that he is locked up with the Flyers all the way through the 2028-29 season. There is no mention of the Slovakian joining the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms in the press release, so one would have to assume that he is truly just going to start fresh next season and attending training camp as someone who is going to be playing stateside instead of heading back overseas.
With the contract starting next season, the Flyers are also not at risk of going close to the 50-contract limit for this season, as they currently sit with 47. Porter Martone will take one of those spots when his season is wrapped up, and the Flyers can also still grab an NCAA free agent or two.
Flyers sign highly skilled winger prospect who was once considered a hidden gem
The 5-foot-10, 21-year-old winger was drafted in the fourth round of the 2023 NHL Draft and since then, has not had an easy development path whatsoever.
When he was drafted, he was playing some time in the Swedish junior league and then up in the HockeyAllsvenskan with Sodertalje, the team he was a part of and developed with since the 2020-21 season. Everything felt on track — he was going to spend more time in the Swedish second division and see if he can climb the ladder from there.
Unfortunately, Ciernik suffered two substantial head injuries which caused him to miss significant time during his Draft+1 season. He was still able to score 14 points in 26 games in the Allsvenskan for Vasterviks IK, but was limited. The season after, as he tried to recover, saw him score 23 points in 46 games for the Nybro Vikings in the same league (that is now three teams in the Swedish second division that Ciernik has laced up for) and to get a sense of where he is at, the Flyers invited him over to play in three AHL games to finish out last season.
Unfortunately, this season was ultimately a step back. Ciernik was going to lace up for the Pelicans in the Finnish Liiga, coached by Flyers legend Sami Kapanen — surely to try to get a real close look at him. Well, he scored three points in 19 games and then ultimately went back to Nybro, where he finished the season with five points in 21 games.
Now, he’s going to take on the new challenge of playing full-time in North America and see if he can make something of it.
The injuries and concussion(s) surely set Ciernik back by a substantial amount almost immediately after being drafted and heralded as a potential late-round gem by most scouts. So, with the Phantoms undergoing their own transition next season, as barely any current forwards under contract for next year, they get to bring in one of their homegrown players from overseas and see if he can take a sizeable step.
Maybe it was just playing on a terrible team in Nybro, or not getting the right developmental help overall. Because Ciernik does ultimate have skill to compete — all throughout his draft year he was praisd for his ability to puck defenders on their heels with speed and hands through the neutral zone and then be competitive in a way that most highly skilled teenaged players are not.
In the end, it’s the Flyers betting on the speed and skill to still be there and hoping that with some stability in North America and some more hands-on development with their staff down in Allentown, that they can rejuvenate what has been lost in Ciernik.
