D · TBL · NHL id 8478416
Erik Cernak has played 1 game for the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2026-27, scoring 0 goals and 0 assists (0 points) on 1 shots while averaging 16:00 a night (14:36 at even strength, 0:00 on the power play and 1:24 shorthanded). At 5v5 he has skated 79% of his 5v5 minutes with Ryan McDonagh and 38% with Jeffrey Viel in his only game so far, and the Lightning have controlled 52% of shot attempts with Cernak on the ice (0-1 in goals, 50% offensive-zone starts). In the Lightning's most recent game against NYR he was on D1 with Ryan McDonagh and off the power play.
Right now
From the Oct 1 game vs NYR, detected from shift data
- Top-four D in 1 of last 1 (was 4 of 20)
- 38% of 5v5 TOI with Hagel (was 10%)
Deployment timeline
2026-27 · per-game ice time by strength, with line and power-play unit changes
Usage: 1 games, 16:00 average time on ice, PP1 in 0 games, 0 line changes.
- Even strength
- Power play
- Penalty kill
- 5-game average
- Did not play
- ▲ promoted · ▼ demoted
NHL EDGE tracking
2025-26 percentiles among skaters at his position
Only 1 GP in 2026-27; showing 2025-26 NHL EDGE data.
Season-level NHL EDGE puck and player tracking, refreshed nightly. The percentile is the league rank among skaters this season; the label at the right is the raw value.
Shot map
2026-27 · 5 attempts, 1 on goal, 0 goals
Shot map, OPP at TBL: 5 attempts, 1 on goal, 0 goals, 0.12 expected goals; best chance Erik Cernak at 0.08 xG.
- Even strength
- Power play
- Penalty kill
- Goal
- Shot on goal
- Missed
- Blocked
Luck
2025-26 · 61 GP · 11 points vs 13.3 expected
Last 20 games: +5. Positive means running hot (sell), negative running cold (buy).
- 5.7%
- 99.5
- 23.9%
- G vs xG
- 3 / 2.4
- • Role rose over the last 10 games (2 promotion events): some of the heat may be real.
- • Shot diet improved: 0.043 xG per attempt lately vs 0.030 before (more from the slot).
- Actual goals
- Expected
- ±1σ
- Above expected
- Below expected
Player analytics
Compare with another player →2025-26 regular season. Rank is among all qualified players; the bar is his percentile among defencemen. Each stat links to its explainer.
- 2026-27 so far: 1 GP, 0 G, 0 A, 0 PPP, 1 SOG.
Fantasy box score
- Games played61
- Goals3525th of 715
- Assists8513th of 715
- Points11548th of 715
- Power-play points0437th of 715
- Shorthanded points1111th of 715
- Shots on goal53535th of 715
- Hits112144th of 715
- Blocked shots9984th of 715
- Plus/minus+3233rd of 715
- Penalty minutes7437th of 715
- Faceoffs won0451st of 715
Possession & shot quality (5-on-5 on-ice)
- Corsi (CF%)49.0%387th of 719
- Fenwick (FF%)48.8%411th of 719
- Expected goals (xGF%)50.9%278th of 719
- Sequence xG (sxGF%)50.8%287th of 719
- High-danger chances (HDCF%)54.8%127th of 719
- Scoring chances (SCF%)51.5%236th of 719
Transition, turnovers & faceoffs
- Transition attempts /600.41553rd of 719
- Turnover Ledger /60−0.055449th of 719
- Forecheck xG /60 (on-ice)0.28377th of 719
Usage
- Ice time per game17:37254th of 715
- Power-play time per game0:03563rd of 715
- Offensive-zone start %38.4%606th of 719
Special teams & discipline
- Net penalties drawn /60−1.51706th of 719
Luck & trend
- On-ice PDO995390th of 719
- Goals above expected+0.7243rd of 715
- Luck Meter−3410th of 828
- Ascension score52143rd of 428
NHL EDGE tracking
- Top skating speed22.2376th of 715
- 20+ mph bursts40462nd of 715
- Hardest shot87.4396th of 715
- Offensive-zone time39.3%603rd of 715
Unranked rows are below the sample minimum (20 GP, 200 five-on-five minutes, 100 draws or 10 goalie games).
Beyond the box score
2025-26 regular season · 59 of 61 games through the sequence engine (more fill in as games are reprocessed)
- −0.055
- Season net
- −0.80xG
5-on-5. Each takeaway is credited, and each giveaway charged, at the league xG value of the zone.
- Per 60
- 0.41
- Attempts
- 6
- 0.016
5-on-5 shots within 10 seconds of winning the puck outside the offensive zone.
Role changes
Notable promotions, demotions and ice-time swings from Line Watch
- Moved up to D1 from D3Apr 25, 2024 alerts →
- Moved up to D1 from D2Nov 22, 2023 alerts →
- Moved up to D1 from D3Oct 21, 2023 alerts →
How his goals happened
9 goals since 2023-24 with NHL EDGE tracking: press Replay to watch the tracking animation
| Game | Play | Entry | Passes | Shot mph | Notes | Replay |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 13, 2026 vs DET | Forecheck turnover | — | 0 | 32.9 | — | |
| Mar 24, 2026 vs MIN | Dump and chase | dump | 1 | 40.5 | — | |
| Feb 5, 2026 vs FLA | Rebound | — | 0 | 8.1 | rebound | |
| Apr 28, 2025 @ FLA | Rush | loose | 0 | 41.2 | — | |
| Feb 27, 2025 vs CGY | Rush | pass | 1* | 62.1 | — | |
| Feb 8, 2025 @ DET | Rush | carry | 1 | 68.5 | — | |
| Feb 6, 2025 vs OTT | Deflection | — | 0 | 35.4 | deflection | |
| Apr 15, 2024 vs BUF | Forecheck turnover | — | 1 | 75.9 | one-timer | |
| Feb 13, 2024 @ BOS | Rush | carry | 1* | 20.2 | — |
* includes a royal-road (cross-slot) pass. Derived from NHL EDGE puck and player tracking.
Linemates
2026-27 · 5v5 time together and how each pairing performs with and without Cernak
| Teammate | Pos | GP | Share | CF% together | GF% together | CF% Cernak apart | CF% mate apart | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryan McDonagh | D | 1 | 11:26 | 79% | 71.4% | 0% (0-1) | 14.3% 3:06 | 75.0% 2:03 |
| Jeffrey Viel | LW | 1 | 5:35 | 38% | 50.0% | 0% (0-1) | 53.8% 8:57 | 46.2% 3:14 |
| Brandon Hagel | LW | 1 | 5:34 | 38% | 66.7% | — (0-0) | 46.7% 8:58 | 78.6% 5:55 |
| Anthony Cirelli | C | 1 | 5:27 | 38% | 50.0% | — (0-0) | 53.3% 9:05 | 78.6% 6:35 |
| Pontus Holmberg | RW | 1 | 4:55 | 34% | 55.6% | — (0-0) | 50.0% 9:37 | 41.2% 6:44 |
| Jake Guentzel | LW | 1 | 4:34 | 31% | 50.0% | — (0-0) | 52.9% 9:58 | 73.3% 6:31 |
| Conor Geekie | C | 1 | 4:25 | 30% | 62.5% | — (0-0) | 46.2% 10:07 | 22.2% 4:46 |
| Gage Goncalves | C | 1 | 3:31 | 24% | 42.9% | — (0-0) | 57.1% 11:01 | 25.0% 5:15 |
| Jansen Harkins | C | 1 | 3:10 | 22% | 50.0% | 0% (0-1) | 53.3% 11:22 | 25.0% 6:51 |
| Zemgus Girgensons | LW | 1 | 3:04 | 21% | 60.0% | — (0-0) | 50.0% 11:28 | 50.0% 3:58 |
| Ilya Mikheyev | RW | 1 | 2:42 | 19% | 25.0% | 0% (0-1) | 58.8% 11:50 | 52.4% 7:40 |
| Victor Hedman | D | 1 | 1:55 | 13% | 20.0% | — (0-0) | 62.5% 12:37 | 48.1% 11:43 |
Game log
1 game in 2026-27, newest first
| Date | Opp | Result | G | A | P | +/- | PIM | HIT | BLK | EV | PP | PK | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 1 | @ NYR | L 1-5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | — | 16:00 | 14:36 | — | 1:24 |
Season splits by strength
2026-27 regular season · on-ice numbers from shift and play-by-play data
| Strength | GP | TOI/GP | SA | GF | GA | GF% | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All situations | 1 | 16:00 | 16:00 | 12 | 11 | 52.2% | 45.5% | 3 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0% | 0.4 | 0.4 | 33% |
| Even strength | 1 | 14:36 | 14:36 | 11 | 10 | 52.4% | 50.0% | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0% | 0.4 | 0.3 | 50% |
| 5v5 | 1 | 14:32 | 14:32 | 11 | 10 | 52.4% | 50.0% | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0% | 0.4 | 0.3 | 50% |
| Penalty kill | 1 | 1:24 | 1:24 | 1 | 1 | 50.0% | 0.0% | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | — | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0% |
Career by season
Seasons in Edgehalla's data (2025-26 is being backfilled; earlier seasons follow)
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | P | +/- | PIM | HIT | BLK | TOI/GP | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | TBL | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 0.0% | 5 | 0 | 16:00 |
| 2025-26Playoffs | TBL | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | +2 | 2 | 6 | 0.0% | 12 | 11 | 19:28 |
| 2025-26 | TBL | 61 | 3 | 8 | 11 | +3 | 74 | 53 | 5.7% | 112 | 99 | 17:37 |
| 2024-25Playoffs | TBL | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 4 | 14 | 7.1% | 15 | 7 | 17:56 |
| 2024-25 | TBL | 76 | 3 | 18 | 21 | +29 | 50 | 64 | 4.7% | 157 | 99 | 18:16 |
| 2023-24Playoffs | TBL | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0.0% | 24 | 7 | 20:39 |
| 2023-24 | TBL | 69 | 2 | 11 | 13 | +5 | 63 | 53 | 3.8% | 198 | 109 | 19:11 |
| 2022-23Playoffs | TBL | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0.0% | 1 | 3 | 9:27 |
| 2022-23 | TBL | 70 | 2 | 14 | 16 | +8 | 53 | 87 | 2.3% | 209 | 100 | 19:14 |
| 2021-22Playoffs | TBL | 23 | 1 | 1 | 2 | +1 | 12 | 22 | 4.5% | 84 | 45 | 19:20 |
| 2021-22 | TBL | 55 | 1 | 12 | 13 | +7 | 46 | 86 | 1.2% | 165 | 73 | 19:09 |
| 2020-21Playoffs | TBL | 21 | 1 | 9 | 10 | +12 | 16 | 36 | 2.8% | 65 | 26 | 19:57 |
| 2020-21 | TBL | 46 | 5 | 13 | 18 | +8 | 38 | 85 | 5.9% | 98 | 46 | 19:47 |
| 2019-20 | TBL | 67 | 5 | 7 | 12 | +11 | 59 | 125 | 4.0% | 172 | 97 | 18:57 |
| 2018-19Playoffs | TBL | 4 | 0 | 3 | 3 | -2 | 0 | 7 | 0.0% | 12 | 1 | 21:29 |
| 2018-19 | TBL | 58 | 5 | 11 | 16 | +25 | 58 | 107 | 4.7% | 198 | 79 | 19:15 |
Erik Cernak news
- Erik Cernak | Training Camp 9.28.26NHL.com
- Erik Cernak | Pregame vs Florida PanthersNHL.com
- Erik Cernak HomeNHL.com
- Erik Cernak Bio, Awards & Draft InfoNHL.com
- Most Valuable Tampa Bay Lightning PlayersThe Hockey Writers
- Jakub Dobes Pushes Nikita Kucherov & Erik Cernak Fight | Canadiens Vs Lightning 2026 Highlights (vmfjl9AHeu)fathomjournal.org
- Erik Cernak | Pregame ECQF Game 6 at MontrealNHL.com
- Erik Cernak | 4.25.26NHL.com
Headlines via LineupExperts. Links open the original publisher.
On-ice and deployment numbers are derived by Edgehalla from NHL play-by-play and shift data. Tracking percentiles are from NHL EDGE. Data updates after every game.