Sam Honzek sees this as an audition, and in more ways than one.
He hopes, with a stellar showing at the world championship, that he can start to build his case to be a full-timer with the Calgary Flames next season.
The 20-year-old forward also is aiming, in his first appearance with Slovakia’s senior national team, to showcase why he should be on the roster to represent his country at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
“There’s going to be lots of eyes on the tournament, so it’s going to be really, really good for me,” Honzek said. “I think this can open up lots of eyes and kind of set me up for the future, for next season.”
Could the next couple of weeks alter exactly where Honzek, who was a first-round draft pick in 2023, fits on the Flames’ future depth chart?
It’s a good question.
“I talked to the GM of the Slovak national team and he said I might have to play centre,” Honzek revealed after his exit interview with the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers. “So that is going to be definitely a big challenge for me, but I think I can handle it.”
Wouldn’t that be a welcome wrinkle for the Flames?
It’s well-documented that the organization is short on centres, especially in the 25-and-under age range that they are targeting to form the nucleus for an eventual contender.
Their top two pivots — leading scorer Nazem Kadri and captain Mikael Backlund — already are in their mid-30s and there are not any sure-things in the prospect pipeline.
Could Honzek, a potential power-forward presence at 6-foot-4 and 195 pounds, be part of the solution at this crucial position? Most envision him as a long-term left winger, but he played a fair bit of both as a rookie in the minors and skates well enough to handle the extra responsibilities up the middle.
Remember, when the Flames opened training camp this past fall with Martin Pospisil at centre, part of the rationale from head coach Ryan Huska was that he had received positive reports about Pospisil’s performance as Slovakia’s 1C at the world championship.
Huska is serving this spring as an assistant on Canada’s bench staff, so he’ll have a see-for-himself opportunity with Honzek. He was on the flank for a tuneup against France, but any shifts at pivot will offer a valuable sneak peek for the staff at the Saddledome.
The Slovaks open Friday against the host Swedes in Stockholm and wouldn’t it be enlightening to find out if this up-and-comer can hold his own while going head-to-head with Backlund?
What if Honzek could successfully swipe a few against Canadian superstar Sidney Crosby, who led the NHL in faceoff wins this season, or if he shows that he can prevail in his puck battles against the likes of Bo Horvat and Ryan O’Reilly?
Would that sway the Flames to give him an extended look at centre as soon as next season? The experiment didn’t work with Pospisil, whose crash-and-bang style makes him more of a menace on the wing, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth a try with another guy.
“It’s always an honour for me to represent my country, especially at that high-stage event. It’s going to be really fun,” Honzek said before departing for the world championship. “And especially when the next season are Olympic Games, it can set me up for that.
“That’s going to be my goal: Go and show I can play. Then have a good summer, try to make the Flames and, from there, hopefully make it to the Olympic Games.”
It’s certainly not far-fetched to think that Honzek, who made three straight trips to the world juniors, could be skating at the five-ring circus next February. He was one of just five Slovak forwards to log NHL shifts during the 2024-25 campaign.
That list also includes Pospisil, plus Juraj Slafkovsky of the Montreal Canadiens, Tomas Tatar of the New Jersey Devils and Dalibor Dvorsky, who was briefly called up by the St. Louis Blues.
Honzek was a training-camp standout for the Flames last fall, earning an opening-night gig at the age of 19.
His first big-league stint was limited to five games, four before he was injured on a heavy hit and one after being cleared to return.
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He was assigned to the Wranglers before his 20th birthday and would spend the remainder of the season with the farm team, totalling eight goals and 13 assists in 52 appearances as an AHL rookie. As a guesstimate, he played roughly one-third of those at centre.
Honzek now realizes how hard it is to light the lamp at the pro level — he scored only twice over a 25-game span from mid-January onward — but believes he made some serious strides. He was particularly proud of his work as a penalty-killer.
“It was lots of experience and lots of learning for me as a first-year pro to get a taste of both leagues,” Honzek said. “I think by the time the season went by, I feel like my personal game went higher. Maybe from point-wise, it wasn’t good. But I think I just played good hockey and developed the stuff what the coaches told me to do.
“Now, I know what it takes to be an NHL player, what I have to do to make it there and basically stay there.”
Could he make it there, and stay there, as a centre?
Maybe he can start to answer that question on the world stage.