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RD Anttoni Honka - JYP Jyväskylä, Liiga (2019, 83rd, CAR)

greasysnapper

greasysnapper

Registered User
Apr 6, 2018
2,588
1,694
Too much emphasis is put on points by some posters in these short tournaments. Hey! Grant Mishmash tied for the lead in points last year. He's a real hidden gem too! (<-- that's sarcasm).

It's great this player can create offense and was at the top of the leaderboards, but boy, he's a headache to watch. There are a lot of issues with this player and for me the biggest one is effort based. Carolina has done a fantastic job with their defenders, even with some of their recent gems like Sellgren so I hate knocking their pick because chances are they'll fix it, but boy, rewatching the games this evening, it was tough to watch him. He deserved to be benched. There were a few more times when he he could have got the riot act read to him and got away with it. I genuinely think he hurt his case more this showcase to make the national team, than helped it.

He needs a lot of work from now until Boxing Day.
 
spockBokk

spockBokk

Registered User
Sep 8, 2013
7,139
17,923
greasysnapper said:
Too much emphasis is put on points by some posters in these short tournaments. Hey! Grant Mishmash tied for the lead in points last year. He's a real hidden gem too! (<-- that's sarcasm).

It's great this player can create offense and was at the top of the leaderboards, but boy, he's a headache to watch. There are a lot of issues with this player and for me the biggest one is effort based. Carolina has done a fantastic job with their defenders, even with some of their recent gems like Sellgren so I hate knocking their pick because chances are they'll fix it, but boy, rewatching the games this evening, it was tough to watch him. He deserved to be benched. There were a few more times when he he could have got the riot act read to him and got away with it. I genuinely think he hurt his case more this showcase to make the national team, than helped it.

He needs a lot of work from now until Boxing Day.
Click to expand...

I didn't think he looked that bad defensively in the games I watched last week. Did he look like future top 4 stalwart? Heck no, but I don't see any reason why he couldn't at least be trained enough to be a passable 3rd pairing guy with a strong partner.

But yeah, he's going to have to work very hard on gaining strength and using his size/speed to his advantage in his own zone to have a chance at making it to the NHL. On the positive side though, you absolutely cannot teach the offensive skills and awareness he seems to possess. As a Canes fan, I hope his Liga coaches and the coaches in Charlotte are able to instill some D zone skills in him over the next few years, cause he's exactly the type of guy the Canes are starved for on their PP.

Seems like the Canes tried to swing for the fences in the 3rd round this year to solve their always open need for a future PPQB in selecting Fensore and Honka.
 
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GoldiFox

Registered User
Apr 21, 2014
13,287
32,030
greasysnapper said:
Too much emphasis is put on points by some posters in these short tournaments. Hey! Grant Mishmash tied for the lead in points last year. He's a real hidden gem too! (<-- that's sarcasm).

It's great this player can create offense and was at the top of the leaderboards, but boy, he's a headache to watch. There are a lot of issues with this player and for me the biggest one is effort based. Carolina has done a fantastic job with their defenders, even with some of their recent gems like Sellgren so I hate knocking their pick because chances are they'll fix it, but boy, rewatching the games this evening, it was tough to watch him. He deserved to be benched. There were a few more times when he he could have got the riot act read to him and got away with it. I genuinely think he hurt his case more this showcase to make the national team, than helped it.

He needs a lot of work from now until Boxing Day.
Click to expand...

Willful disdain at this point to try make the case against Honka in this tournament. He was near the top of every "best of the tournament" lists by nearly every professional outlet I saw (read: not HF armchair scouts). He was great offensively and above-average defensively in my viewings of every game.

Of course there were defensive lapses for every single top defender for every team. These guys have never played with each other and were learning a new system on the fly over the course of a week. Mistakes are the rule, not the exception.
 
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DaveG

DaveG

Noted Jerk
Apr 7, 2003
51,315
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Winston-Salem NC
Jyssy said:
Most important thing is that he's much more reliable defensively than last season. Blunders still happen but much less than before.
Click to expand...
That was the big thing the canes coaching staff wanted him to work on this off-season as well so great to see significant progress
 
spockBokk

spockBokk

Registered User
Sep 8, 2013
7,139
17,923
Jyssy said:
Most important thing is that he's much more reliable defensively than last season. Blunders still happen but much less than before.
Click to expand...

100% agree-if Honka can round out that area of his game, I see him as a very good candidate for 2nd pair/#1 PPQB on an NHL team in a few years.

The old adage that you can't teach innate offensive ability, but you can teach defense applies for sure here. With his skills in the offensive zone, if he can just end up as passable in the D zone in the NHL, I think CAR will be absolutely thrilled.

CAR has made quite the concerted effort to bring in offensive D to help out the PP through the latest draft and in signings this past off-season. They drafted Honka and Fensore while signing Gardiner and Priskie. They also have Bean in the AHL and Hamilton excelling on their NHL top D pair. They certainly have that area covered depth-wise I'd say...
 
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ChicagoBullsFan

ChicagoBullsFan

Registered User
Jun 6, 2015
6,151
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Finland
Scored 1 goal and assisted 3 goals yesterday's SM liiga game vs Kalpa.
Video of Honka's 4 point night comes later ( when i found it. )
 
Jersey Fan 12

Jersey Fan 12

Positive Vibes
Nov 20, 2006
6,118
2,624
Still listed on CapFriendly reserve list and was JyP's second-leading scorer but it seems like there isn't much attention.

Any chance he receives an offer this summer or is he more likely headed elsewhere in Europe rather than to North America?
 
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