The Calgary Flames spent much of Saturday night’s clash with the Winnipeg Jets missing one of their most effective young forwards. Rookie Sam Honzek left the game midway through the second period after an inadvertent collision with Flames teammate Mikael Backlund.

The collision occurred roughly seven minutes into the second period. Backlund was carrying the puck through the neutral zone and collided with Honzek, who seemed like he was focused on not going off-side while anticipating Backlund’s zone entry.

Honzek returned to the Flames bench gingerly and went down the tunnel for evaluation. On the same sequence, the Jets opened the scoring, with Mark Scheifele beating Dustin Wolf with a wrist shot while enjoying a lot of time and space in the Flames’ zone – likely afforded to him by the confusion after the Backlund/Honzek hit.

Sportsnet’s Pat Steinberg reported at the beginning of the third period that Honzek would not return to the game.

A first-round pick by the Flames in the 2023 NHL Draft, Honzek celebrated his 21st birthday a few days ago and is in the midst of a breakthrough season. After being cut from Flames training camp, he received a call-up at the start of the season due to injuries to Martin Pospisil and Jonathan Huberdeau. He got a chance to play in the third game of the season and has been so effective, playing primarily with Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman, that it’s been almost impossible to remove him from the Flames’ lineup.

Prior to Saturday’s game, Honzek had posted two goals and one assist for three points in 17 games this season. Considering how effective he’s been for the Flames this season, and his prior rotten injury luck, hopefully he won’t be absent from the Flames lineup for too long.

We’ll have more on Honzek’s status as it becomes available.

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