Asked if he is feeling more comfortable in this second stint as an NHLer, Sam Honzek pauses a beat.
The Calgary Flames forward callup doesn’t want to fib, but he’s not necessarily sure he wants to admit the answer — more to himself than to anyone else.
“I would say yeah,” Honzek said. “But I try to put myself in uncomfortable positions, you know? Because sometimes I can feel that when I’m uncomfortable, I play better. So I have in mind and have that thought in my head that nothing is guaranteed here and I still have to earn everything.
“It’s all on me to show them that I belong here and I deserve a spot.”
He’s doing a heck of a job of that.
In fact, it’s getting harder and harder to envision that Honzek will be returning to the AHL’s Wranglers.
The 20-year-old forward from Slovakia has now suited up for nine consecutive games and continues to bolster his case that he’s ready for a permanent stay at the big-league level.
He not only has been a nice fit alongside Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman, but Flames skipper Ryan Huska repeatedly has mentioned that those wily vets have played their best hockey of this season when No. 29 is the left wing on that line.
On Tuesday, Honzek notched his first NHL goal — this coming only four nights after his first career assist. Adding to his bright-spot status in a 4-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, he was credited with a team-high five hits.
“I’m really, really happy for me that one finally went in after hitting a couple of posts and being kind of unlucky,” Honzek told reporters in Toronto. “But maybe if the result would be different of the game, it would be way better.”
The results have not been good for these Flames.
Heading into Thursday’s showdown in Ottawa, they sit dead last in the overall standings at 2-8-1. If they lose in regulation against the Senators, it would cement this as the worst October in franchise history.
Honzek, however, has been one of the positives.
“I can see in myself or feel in myself that I’m playing a more mature game,” Honzek told Postmedia before the Flames departed on this four-game trip. “And everything that I did in the summer, it’s now paying off.”
Ah yes, that 15 pounds that he added over the off-season is making a difference.
But it’s not just that. Huska paid him quite a compliment this past weekend, saying: “I look at him more as a coach’s player, where details really matter for him.”
While his 6-foot-4 frame always has given him power-forward potential, Honzek seems to embracing the mindset and identity that needs to go along with it.
On his first NHL apple, he forced a turnover near his own blue line, then persevered in a board battle that extended through the neutral zone, finally springing the puck loose and quickly dishing to one of his pals.
Maybe he wouldn’t have owned the wall like that a year ago, when he looked a little overwhelmed in five appearances with the Flames and then struggled to an underwhelming stat line in the minors — eight goals and 21 points in 52 outings.
It was easy to be down on his development then, but some of the internal numbers were encouraging.
“He’s just a kid, right? So you have to grow into your body and learn how strong you are and what you’re capable of,” Wranglers coach Brett Sutter said during an interview earlier this fall on Flames Talk on Sportsnet 960 The Fan. “Even last season, after half a year of pro, if you look at the body of work that he did in the last 30 games, we were sitting down once a week and going through his analytics and how many battles he was getting into, and that was going up and up every game. And then it was how many of those he was winning, and that was going up and up every game.
“I think it’s just recognizing what he’s capable of and then continuing to get bigger and stronger.”
For any kid selected in the first round of the NHL Draft, fans immediately envision a future on the first line, first defence pairing or as the usual first-off-the-ice at morning skate, a privilege that is reserved for the starting netminder.
And maybe Honzek, who was the No. 16 overall pick in 2023, can eventually be a top-line type.
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But if he can simply maintain as a middle-six winger, if he can be a force on the forecheck and a fixture on the penalty kill, that would still make him an important piece of the Flames’ long-term plan.
If he can someday be the net-front presence on the power play, that would be a bonus.
“He’s a very smart man,” Huska said. “I think he recognizes, ‘How can I help this team? Maybe down the road I see myself as a little different player but right now, I’ll be a guy that is going to forecheck and kill penalties for this team and I will do it to the best of my ability.’
“And that’s kind of what we’ve seen from him so far. I feel like he’s figuring out what he has to do to establish himself as an NHL player and then we’ll keep growing his game from there.”
In a frustrating fall, that has been a big positive for the Flames.
Does that mean Honzek, who turns 21 in two weeks, is now in the NHL to stay?
As long as he can keep this up, it sure that feels that way.