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Flames prospect Sam Honzek was solid if unspectacular in his AHL debut at centre
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Photo credit: ©Tav Morisson-Oilers Nation
Ryan Pike
Dec 19, 2024, 12:00 ESTUpdated: Dec 19, 2024, 11:36 EST
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When the Calgary Flames selected Sam Honzek at 16th overall in the first round of the 2023 NHL Draft, you could understand the appeal.
He’s big! He’s toolsy! He moves well! He’s played in a ton of international events, so you know how he compares to the top players in his age group. But man, if only he could play centre…
In his draft year, Honzek was primarily a left wing and took about two face-offs per game on average. During the 2023 off-season, there were musings that perhaps Honzek could be tried out at centre by his junior club, the Western Hockey League’s Vancouver Giants. Heck, his head coach at the time, Manny Viveiros, openly pondered it in a chat with Postmedia’s Steve Ewen:
“For me, I would prefer him to play at centre,” Viveiros said. “I think he has the skill set.
“I think he’s skilled enough, smart enough, mobile enough and big enough to be able to do both (centre and wing). We’re obviously going to take into consideration where Calgary wants him, because we want to give him the best opportunity to play in the National Hockey League. But I also think that he could benefit from being able to play both positions.
Unfortunately, Honzek suffered an abdominal injury in a pre-season game against Edmonton and rather than start his WHL season on time – potentially as a centre – he was out until December. Between his late start and a stint at the World Juniors and a facial injury that required him to wear a bubble for several weeks, Honzek just didn’t get a chance to be tried out as a centre for any considerable length of time with the Giants.
He went pro this season and, to this point, has been used almost exclusively as a left wing with initially the Flames and now the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers.
Well, on Wednesday night in Ontario, California, Honzek got to play his first professional game as a centre. The Wranglers were without captain Clark Bishop (we’re going to assume it was injury-related unless we’re told otherwise), who’s been centring Honzek’s line almost exclusively this season. As a result of Bishop’s absence, the Wranglers’ centres were Honzek, Rory Kerins, Sam Morton and Trevor Janicke.
The good news is that Honzek looked perfectly fine. He played a regular shift and went 6-for-15 (40%) at the face-off dot. That’s pretty representative of his entire team, as they struggled to consistently win draws against Ontario and were out-shot 38-14 by the Reign. Puck possession was a little bit more even, though still favouring Ontario, as a ton of Wranglers shot attempts were blocked by Ontario.
Honzek played at five-on-five between Adam Klapka and Martin Frk, on the first penalty kill unit with Dryden Hunt, and on the second power play unit with Frk, Sam Morton, Jonathan Aspirot and Jeremie Poirier. He played with a pretty even rotation of defensive pairings all game.
Honzek was on the ice for two of the game’s three goals: a Wranglers power play goal by Morton and a Reign even strength goal by Shawn Element.
Honzek fed Morton the puck for his goal and was credited with the primary assist. It’s his eighth assist and 12th point of the season (and eighth point in December).
A little later in the period, Honzek and Poirier seemed to get crossed up in the defensive zone off a scrambly play (and a really nice, quick pass from Jacob Doty). One of them needed to step up to check Element, neither of them did quickly enough, and Element scored to tie the game.
All-told, the best compliment I can give Honzek in his AHL centre debut is he didn’t seem like somebody playing their first game at that position at that level. He looked very much like he has all season, and head coach Trent Cull used him in a pretty consistent role in the game (without any apparent attempts to shelter him). You would love to have seen him win more draws, but ultimately Honzek’s centre debut was quite solid.
We’ll see if Honzek has an opportunity to build upon this game at centre in the future, or if he’ll be returned back to the wing when the Wranglers return home to face Henderson this coming Friday and Sunday at the ‘Dome.

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