Royals Sign Forward Joey Sides

Reading, PA – The Reading Royals of the ECHL, affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League, today announced that the team has signed forward Joey Sides to an ECHL Standard Players Contract. In a separate transaction, forward Robbie Czarnik was returned to the Royals from the Providence Bruins of the AHL. In separate transactions, the Royals also released forwards Adam Berkle and Andrew Ammon from their respective ECHL Standard Player’s Contracts.

Sides (5’11/187) (26), who hails from Sun Valley, Idaho, was claimed by the Royals via ECHL waivers on Wednesday after he was released by the Wichita Thunder. The fifth year pro had thirteen points (2g-11a) and twenty-four penalty minute in thirty-one games with the Thunder. Sides,who has registered 90 total points (40g-50a) in 116 games in the ECHL, joined the Colorado Eagles mid-way into the 2011-12 season after returning to North America from Holland, where he racked up forty-nine points in twenty-nine games. Sides experience immediate success in the ECHL, earning the AMI Graphics Player of the Month Award for February of 2012 after playing plus-13 in 12 games during the month. Sides spent the first two seasons of his pro career in the now-defunct Central Hockey League with the Arizona Sundogs. While in his second season in Arizona, he was selected to represent the Sundogs in 2011 CHL All-Star Game. Sides has also logged six games in the AHL (0g-2a) during his pro career. Prior to turning pro, he had a successful collegiate career at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, where he was a three-time captain and earned an Honorable Mention selection to the All-ECAC-Northeast Team. In ninety total games with the Leopards, Sides racked up eighty-five points (32g-53a) and 201 penalty minutes.

Czarnik, a fifth year pro from Detroit, Michigan, was loaned to Providence on December 29. He registered six penalty minutes in two games with the P-Bruins in this stint in the AHL. In twenty-nine games with the Royals, Czarnik has scored a team leading fifteen goals (15g-12a=27pts). He has had at least one point in his last four games with Reading (3g-2a=5pts) and has scored eight goals in his last thirteen games in the ECHL. Berkle, a first year pro from Collegeville, Pennsylvania, recorded one assist and nine penalty minutes in eighteen games for Reading. Ammon, a second year pro from Anchorage, Alaska, recorded two penalty minutes in three games for the Royals.

The Royals return to action tonight (Friday, January 8, 2016 @ 7:00 pm) when the team will face the Toledo Walleye for the first time this year at Santander Arena in Reading. On Friday, the Royals will celebrate “Teacher Appreciation Night” when the organization will honor local educators for their contribution to our community. That night, the team will also host a ‘Battle of the Schools’ in our “Color Wars” event. The game night broadcast for Friday’s matchup can be heard live on CBS SportsRadio 1240 am and 98.5 in Reading, Pennsylvania, starting with the pre-game warm-up show presented by Highmark Blue Shield at 6:30 pm Eastern Time. Streaming audio is available free of charge on the Royals’ website (follow the ‘headset’ icon); and streaming video is available on a pay-per-view basis through ECHL.TV. For more information about the Royals, call 610-898-7825 or log onto www.royalshockey.com.