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Horak has been ranked twice before and both times he landed at 19, this time around Roman Horak has fallen to 21. Let’s see how this happened.
| Rank | Player | DOB | Drafted | Year | Ryan | Scott | Ben | Shona | Zach | Jeff | Matt | Curtis | Zsolt | Sunil |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | Roman Horak | 21/05/1991 | 127 | 2009 (NYR) | 16 | 20 | 11 | 27 | 25 | 23 | 22 | 20 | 26 | 26 |
Since becoming an Oilers’ prospect, Horak seems to be remembered for only one thing. He was the other prospect that the Oilers acquired in exchange for Ladislav Smid. Beyond that most Oilers fans don’t really know much about Horak and for good reason, he only played 2 games as an Oiler. In his 2 games with the Oilers he recorded a goal but it probably came at the most inopportune time, April 12, 2014 AKA Ryan Smyth’s last game in the NHL.
The Flames
As a Flame, Horak had a couple decent seasons. He was a 3rd/4th liner on a bad team but did make the best of what he was given. His rookie season he played 61 games for the Flames and scored 3-8-11.
Forunately for him, Horak’s sophomore year came during the NHL lockout. In the AHL he was given more responsibility and was able to build on his rookie season performing at a 0.5PPG pace. When the NHL season finally began Horak returned to the Flames and played 6 games (1-1-2) before being reassigned to the AHL in favour of GRIT. After over a month in the AHL Horak would return to finish out the season with the Flames and record another goal and 4 assists in his remaining 14 games.
The Oilers
As I mentioned earlier, Horak got traded to Edmonton in 2013 after playing a single game that season for the Flames. He was immediately assigned to OKC and played great scoring at slightly under a 1PPG (53GP 21-27-48).
In the summer of 2014 the Oilers issued a qualifying offer to Roman Horak which allowed them to retain his rights until he turns 27.
The Future
Even though the Oilers have retained his rights I’m guessing that Horak is more of a tradable asset than a potential player on the team. Horak is under contract to Chekhov Vityaz of the KHL this season and if I had to guess I’d say he becomes another Teemu Hartikainen, traded to another NHL team for some other asset/prospect.