Martin Gernat became the second Slovak named Martin to be drafted by the Oilers in the last two drafts this past June. Drafted 122nd overall in the 2011 draft, few would anticipate his absolute domination of the WHL at the start of this season.
Martin Marincin had a solid season in his own rite last year as a second round pick playing for Prince George and undoubtedly was looked at as the superior prospect. However he was not this productive out of the gate while Gernat has been a man possessed.
Gernat's stat line looks like a man playing against boys, 6 games 5-5-10 and a +6 rating. At this point last year, Marincin went for 2-2-4 and a -1. Hell this year Marincin is 0-5-5 and a +2 in 5 games. Gernat is leaving his fellow countryman in his wake at the start of the '11-12 season.
While it is far too early to know what Gernat may/may not become in terms of a pro hockey player, the fact that he is leading his team in scoring by 4 points tells you that he is not leaching off of anyone, and that he is one of the bus drivers on the Oil Kings. While no one should expect Gernat to keep up his torrid offensive pace, and a few slumps are bound to creep up sooner or later, Gernat has proven that he has some offensive talent that will no longer be overlooked when talking about his game.
Marincin ended his rookie season with 14-42-56 and a -12 rating in 67 games, if Gernat can meet those kinds of stats, you would have to call it a smashing success for a 5th round pick. That said he would need to go for 9-37-46 in his next 61 games to get there. At this rate I wouldn't bet against him reaching or surpassing those totals.
2 comments:
I find it interesting how well the Slovak players are doing, after Milan Kytnar mentioned that the hockey programs in Slovakia just aren't what they used to be; that they lack the funding and coaching that they once had.
Very interesting to watch if nothing else.
I believe that both Martin's came from the same program, just going off of their impacts relative to their NA peers in the WHL, I'd say that unless there guys are extreme exceptions, that things are going pretty well in Slovakia.
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