Sam Honzek smiles when he’s asked.
Not about the goal he scored against the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday night in Abbotsford.
It’s a drawn penalty that draws the smile out of the Slovak winger.
Late in the second period, Honzek went into the corner and found himself fighting for the puck against hulking Canucks defender Vincent Desharnais, who stands at 6-foot-7 and is one of the bigger players in the NHL.
Honzek held his own, battling for the puck before giving his team a two-minute man advantage when a frustrated Desharnais threw an elbow that landed flush with the 19-year-old’s helmet.
“Sometimes you’ve got to take a hit and let yourself get beat up if it’s good for the team,” Honzek said. “It doesn’t matter who was there, I’ve still got to do it and you compete. It doesn’t matter if he’s heavier or taller or smaller, I’ve still got to out-compete him and just don’t let him easily get the puck. That’s what it’s all about.”
It might seem odd to focus on a battle along the boards instead of any of Honzek’s so-far-impressive work creating offence throughout three pre-season games for the Flames. It’s only pre-season, of course, but no player in the NHL had more points so far since the start of training camp than the six that Honzek has produced.
But that work along the boards is illustrative of the evolution in the 19-year-old’s game and his growth in the 12 months since his first camp with the Flames.
In 2023, Honzek came into camp with the high expectations that always accompany a first-round pick. He’d been selected 16th overall in last year’s NHL Draft by the Flames, but he didn’t necessarily stand out in his first training camp.
Injuries impacted his season with the Vancouver Giants in the WHL, too.
This year, though, he looks like a totally different player. Bigger, stronger, faster and more confident.
“Last year when he was in our camp, maybe it’s a learning lesson for me, too, along the way,” said Flames head coach Ryan Huska. “You see these young guys come in and you have these expectations that, ‘Oh, this guy’s a first rounder, he’s going to be the next coming,’ and it’s hard on the young guys coming in because they recognize these NHL players are pretty good players so it takes a little bit of a hit to their confidence.
“What he’s done is he’s gone away in the summer and worked really hard and he’s come back and I think he’s realizing that, ‘I don’t have to take a step back with these guys.’ He knows he’s a good player. To see the kind of development he’s gone through in one short year is pretty impressive and he’s done a really good job. Probably one of our more noticeable forwards overall.”
Honzek spent much of his summer working out with fellow Slovak Martin Pospisil, who burst onto the NHL scene last year with his tenacious style for the Flames. It’s clearly paid dividends, and while the most likely near future for Honzek involves him starting the season with the Calgary Wranglers in the AHL, it’s not inconceivable that he’ll be spending time with the Flames this year, too.
A year ago, that seemed a long way off.
But with the way Honzek’s been showing out on the ice through the first week of training camp, he’s proving he belongs.
“I would say last year I came into the team, the new guy and didn’t know how things worked,” Honzek explained. “I was still finding myself. Now, I know what I’m coming for and what I’ve got to do to be successful and what the coaches want us to do.
“They want us to compete and work hard and that’s what I’m trying to do every game. Hunt the pucks down and don’t let them off the hook.”