Red Wings Recall Austin Czarnik Under Emergency Conditions

Detroit calls up Czarnik from GR. What does that mean for Jonatan Berggren?

This morning, the Detroit Red Wings announced that they were recalling veteran forward Austin Czarnik from the Grand Rapids Griffins under emergency conditions.

Czarnik—who is 31 years old—has featured in 18 games for Detroit this season, though the most recent of those was back on December 29th against Nashville.

He has one assist for the season in the NHL and has averaged 8:44.

With Czarnik called up and Dylan Larkin still unavailable, the Red Wings have 13 forwards at their disposal, which is to say that one of those forwards will be a healthy scratch tonight against the Coyotes. Daniel Sprong played just 7:41 against the Sabres during Tuesday night’s rout and picked up a -4 rating in so doing, so perhaps he is a candidate to sit.

The other logical alternative as a scratch (if Czarnik himself does play) is Jonatan Berggren. Detroit recalled Berggren in hopes of a spark prior to Saturday’s game in Vegas, and he did pick up an assist against Buffalo, but Derek Lalonde has not exactly been effusive in evaluating Berggren’s performance.

Lalonde said of Berggren before the Buffalo game, “We want to hold him accountable…We have a lot of guys that wanna make plays, sometimes at the risk of the team game…We’re hoping he’s gonna help us down the stretch here.”

Czarnik offers a much different (lower risk, lower upside) profile to Lalonde as a potential piece of the forward group. He is a versatile, defense-first player who is unlikely to contribute much of any meaningful offense. If Lalonde opts for him in the lineup over Berggren, that would be an interesting referendum on Berggren’s short-to-medium term future with the Red Wings.

As a reminder, Berggren has now played 78 NHL games, so two more will push him across a critical threshold where he would have to clear waivers to return to the NHL.

Detroit won’t risk losing him for nothing via waivers, but if he doesn’t cement a roster spot before Larkin returns from injury, you have to at least wonder whether Lalonde in particular perceives him as part of the team’s future success.