@The Nemesis how do you feel about Honzek’s progress (or lack thereof) this season?
At first when he was back from his injury/wjcs/whatever else was keeping him out I thought he looked good. Not game-controlling dominant but he played hard, scored some pretty goals, scored some greasy goals, and pressured defences on the rush. This sort of peaked around the trade deadline where he was, to the best of my now fuzzy memory, on a line with Jaden Lipinski and the then-freshly-acquired Winnipeg Jets draft pick Connor Levis. For a couple of weeks they were wrecking teams.
But I don't know what happened after that. Somewhere along the way he really cooled off and just never seemed to have the same spark to close out the season. Sure he still picked up some points and would score the odd goal (and looking at his stats now he was basically PPG for the season) but it just seemed... I dunno.... underwhelming I guess? Then he got shuffled off that line and his wing spot was taken by 2025-eligible winger Cameron Schmidt who took over as the team's primary goal-scorer. Now on a second line with some much more secondary talents (a pair of undrafted guys who are 18 and 19 years old this season after the team lost its early-season scoring leader to a nasty skate cut on his forearm early in the new year) he sort of faded into the background. Part of it was likely because he was now working with guys whose career highs prior to this season were like 12 and 19 goals respectively. But I don't know if you can blame all of it on that.
I know from time to time there was a guy that would stand at the drink rail/standing-room-bar up above my section that I think may have been a Flames scout and on a few occasions when I went past he would be talking to someone about what might've been Honzek and he seemed less than impressed (full disclosure: I cannot guarantee that's what he was talking about or what his full thoughts were. I wasn't going to interrupt his conversation nor did I want to just butt in while he was doing his job other times.) and seemed like he had issues with Honzek's decision making and consistency of compete level. But I also know I've heard the Giants radio broadcast post-game's color guy rave about Honzek's compete even during this playoff series where the team was getting worked over a lot of the time. Obvious homer bias there, but the guy (Bill Wilms, a golf and hockey commentator who played some NCAA hockey and I think coached BC-based Jr A or B for a few years a couple decades ago) is usually pretty blunt when he doesn't like something. So I dunno.
All in all I think this was a disappointing year on the whole for Honzek. It was kind of screwed by the lost start to the year and time away for the WJCs, and if you just look at the scoresheet going a point-per-game for almost half a season's worth of games isn't terrible, but I expected more.
Still, I've sort of resigned myself to the fact that he probably turns pro next year and the Flames will try to guide his development in the AHL. Maybe there's value in having him come back and see if he can crush the WHL in a season-long leading role, and I think the Vancouver coaching staff are good teachers (the current coach was most recently the coach for Vegas' AHL club the last few yeras, but he also coached in Austria's pro league and took the Austrian national team to the Olympics one year. So it's not like he's unfamiliar with shaping guys for pro roles.) but it feels like if his issues are more micro-scale and not just "gain confidence" the Flames might see more value in actually controlling it.
The other thing that might be annoying for you guys is that he never played center at all. Sure, maybe it's just a sign he was always going to be destined for a wing role in the pros (for all I know this was at the behest of the Flames, though I'm not sure that would be something an NHL team would push for a guy not to gain more experience for versatility) but it seems weird not to have a guy who apparently
could play center do so even when the team was struggling to figure out its scoring depth was a bit of a choice.
Without going into another thread or going into nearly as much depth I think Lipinski had a solid season. He led the team in scoring, was usually the 1C, and while I don't know if the offence translates up (I'm not a scout and I suck at making those sorts of projections) he at least feels like he competes hard, backchecks hard and could be a solid 3C pro even if his scoring output flattens out.
Keep in mind that no matter how authoritative the above sounded I am not a scout and do not have elite takes in terms of evaluating hockey players. I've watched lots of guys at this level who I was impressed by and almost to the last they've never really gone anywhere. Except this kid I saw last year. Connor something... He turned out OK I guess.
