The Calgary Flames announced their 2024-25 season-opening roster on Monday, and there’s a teenager on it. Forward Samuel Honzek, the club’s 2023 first-round pick and a teenager until Nov. 12, will begin the season on the big club’s roster.

A teenager cracking the Flames roster isn’t unprecedented – such luminaries as Sean Monahan, Matthew Tkachuk and 18-year-old Sam Bennett did it – but it hasn’t happened in awhile, so it’s natural to be curious about potential contractual impacts and ripple effects of Honzek’s impressive accomplishment.

The short answer is: there could be a few, but they aren’t like to be terribly challenging for the Flames to navigate.

Honzek signed his entry-level contract as a 19-year-old for waiver purposes, so he gets four seasons or 160 NHL games of waiver exemption – whichever is used up first. No matter where he plays – NHL, AHL or WHL – this season will count as his second year of exemption. Whatever NHL games he plays will count against his 160 games of exemption; if he’s good enough to play so many games that it eats significantly into that limit this season, we’re sure the Flames would be fine with it.

Whenever a young player makes an NHL club, the knee-jerk reaction among a certain sub-section of fans is “Oh no, what if he plays 10 games!” In Honzek’s case, that’s an reasonable concern; because he was a late birthday (born between Sept. 15 and Dec. 31) that signed during the calendar year of his drafting, he qualifies for two potential slide years instead of the usual one (or zero, in some cases).

A “slide year” means that unless a player plays 10 or more NHL games, the start of their three year entry-level deal “slides” back and is delayed by a year. For a player who’s a late birthday like Honzek, it creates a situation where a player is old enough to play in the AHL but it potentially wouldn’t count against their three ELC years if they don’t play 10 NHL games that season – it’s essentially a free year of development. The Flames utilized this set-up in the past with such notable players as Rasmus Andersson and Connor Zary.

If Honzek plays nine or fewer NHL games this season, his three ELC years start to run next season (2025-26) and last until 2027-28. If he plays 10 or more NHL games, his ELC clock starts to run this season and lasts until 2026-27. This would get him to his second contract faster, which can be advantageous for both sides potentially, as you can negotiate a long-term contract once his ELC expires. Getting to the second contract faster could be good for both player and team, as it’s a chance for the team to lock a good player in long-term and a chance for a player to cash in.

While the “10 games factor” is mentioned quite a bit, the more important number is 40 games because of how players in the NHL qualify for unrestricted free agency.

To become a UFA, a player has to be on an expiring contract and either (a) be 27 or older on July 1 or (b) have seven seasons of service, defined as 40 or more games on an NHL roster in a season. For most players, it’s usually being 27 that qualifies them. But for players that become NHL regulars as teens, they can potentially become UFAs a year or two earlier.

If Honzek is on the NHL roster for 40 or more games this season – regardless of whether he plays in any or all of them – he’ll be able to potentially become a UFA after the 2030-31 season at age 26. Otherwise, he would qualify for being a UFA after the 2031-32 season at age 27.

Again: if he’s good enough to be around on the NHL roster long enough for this to become an active concern, we’re sure the Flames would be fine to deal with Honzek qualifying for being a UFA a year earlier.

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