Royals Sign Forward Robbie Czarnik

Reading, PA – The Reading Royals of the ECHL, affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL, today announced that the team has agreed to terms with forward Robbie Czarnik. The Royals have announced ten players as signed to ECHL Standard Players Contracts for the 2015-16 season. In addition to Czarnik, Reading has announced the signing of forwards Justin Crandall, Cam Reid, Mike Pereira, Joe Rehkamp and Ian Watters and defensemen Jordan Heywood, Derik Johnson, Curtis Leonard and Sam Windle.

Video content on Czarnik can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggGN8n6WvBw.

Last season, Czarnik (6’0/191) (25), who hails from Detroit, Michigan, registered forty points (23g-17a) and thirty-penalty minutes with two teams in the ECHL (the Indy Fuel and Ontario Reign) before joining the Norfolk Admirals of the AHL late in the season with whom he added four points (1g-3a) in ten games. Czarnik, who will be entering his fifth year of pro, began last year on a torrid pace, starting the season with a four-game goal scoring streak (5g-2a=7pts) for the Fuel. He ended up bagging thirty points (17g-13a) in thirty-one games for Indy before being traded in mid-January to Ontario, where he added ten points (6g-4a) in twenty-one games. In early March, Czarnik was traded from the Reign to the Gwinnett Gladiators, but did not clear the entry physical with Gwinnett. Nonetheless, he was then loaned to the Admirals in the AHL where he finished the season.

Czarnik, who was drafted by the Los Angeles Kings in the third round of the 2008 NHL Entry draft, spent the first three seasons of his pro career in the AHL, primarily with the Manchester Monarchs, after signing an NHL entry-level contract with LA. In 145 total AHL games, he has recorded 38 points (14g-24a) and 89 penalty minutes. Prior to turning pro, Czarnik had a breakout season in 2010-11 with the Plymouth Whalers of the Ontario Hockey League, where he tied for the team lead with seventy-seven points (33g-44a) in 61 games of major junior. Czarnik joined the Whalers mid-way through the 2009-10 season after leaving the University of Michigan, where he played fifty-one total games (8g-14a) over a season and a half. During his freshman year with the Wolverines, Czarnik earned the CCHA Rookie of the Week Award on March 2, 2009, for a Michigan team that would advance to the NCAA Tournament. Prior to matriculating to Michigan, Czarnik tied for the team lead in scoring for the bronze medalist Team USA in the 2008 Under-18 World Junior Championships.

The Fifteenth Season of Royals’ hockey kicks off with back-to-back games against the South Carolina Stingrays at North Charleston Coliseum on Saturday (October 17) and Sunday (October 18). Reading then opens the home portion of the team’s schedule on Saturday, October 24, (7:00 pm) when the Elmira Jackals visit Santander Arena. Season Tickets for the 2015-16 Reading Royals ECHL season are currently available. Call 610-898-7825 for more information or log onto www.royalshockey.com.