Flames Notebook: Honzek's leap headlines day of developments

CALGARY – Sam Honzek isn’t just the best story to come out of the Calgary Flames’ training camp, he may have been their best player.

Thus, the 19-year-old first-round revelation will not only start his NHL career on opening night, he’ll do so on the top line.

“He’s forced our hand a little bit,” explained coach Ryan Huska on a day full of interesting roster developments in Calgary.   

“That’s what I love about him. It seemed like everybody had him written off before we even started.”

One year after the team’s 16th overall pick in 2023 quietly returned to the juniors following an underwhelming training camp, Honzek followed it up with a summer of intense training with Martin Pospisil to, well, become the next Pospisil.

It is with that in mind, Huska felt the 6-foot-4, 190-pound left winger was the best candidate to fill the shoes of injured Yegor Sharangovich alongside Nazem Kadri and Andrei Kuzmenko. 

“Kads and Kuzy have great chemistry, and when Marty was on that line he has straight-line speed, similar to Honzy’s. They have sort of the same characteristics, so it made sense to start him there.”

Part of why Flames general manager Craig Conroy didn’t sleep much over the weekend revolved around how he’d have to make room in the lineup for Honzek after the big Slovak led the pre-season with two goals and seven points.

It meant exposing Jakob Pelletier on waivers, amongst other moves.

“What we’ve always asked for is competition and for them to make decisions hard,” said Conroy.

“It’s a good thing. It means we are heading in the right direction.”

No one more so than Honzek, who was tabbed to open the season with the Wranglers before he took the pre-season by storm.

“Where I saw myself last year to where I am now... it’s like everyone’s dream,” smiled the Vancouver Giants captain, who had yet to share the good news with his parents.

“But now it’s another step to become a full-time NHL player. Now I need to show I deserve this spot.”

Here's a look at the lines, who the Flames lost on waivers Monday, and all the other developments before declaring their opening 23-man roster Monday, ahead of Wednesday’s lid-lifter in Vancouver:

PELLETIER STILL A FLAME

Conroy didn’t want to lose his first-rounder from 2019, but the 23-year-old Pelletier didn’t do enough in camp to earn a roster spot ahead of either Matt Coronato or Adam Klapka. So after surveying GMs league-wide, he rolled the dice Sunday… and won. Pelletier and goalie Devin Cooley cleared and were sent down to the Wranglers.

“He should be a little bit upset for sure when he goes down, but he has to take it that there are certain things he has to work on and get better at to be considered a full-time NHL player,” said Huska of Pelletier. 

“With his attitude, I don’t really worry about that. I think he’s going to go down and I think he’s going to put in the work to get back here.”

COLE SCHWINDT CLAIMED BY VEGAS

Schwindt was a depth centre for the Flames, who was acquired as part of the Matthew Tkachuk/Jonathan Huberdeau/MacKenzie Weegar swap.   

“That’s a tough one for sure,” said Huska, after the 23-year-old minor leaguer was snagged from the waiver wire.

“It hurts for us because he’s a right-handed centre and that’s something we don’t have when you look at our depth.”

SHARANGOVICH ON THE LIMP

The Flames’ leading goal scorer from a year ago left Friday’s pre-season game early with a lower-body injury that landed him on injured reserve Monday.

“That’s a big loss for us,” said Huska, who listed him as “week-to-week.”

“It’s tough not to have him because he makes our power play better, he’s a penalty killer and he plays a lot of minutes 5-on-5 for him.”

GOALIES

Sending Cooley down was always the plan, as long as Dustin Wolf and Dan Vladar had fruitful camps.

All three were solid throughout the exhibition schedule, leading to what will likely be a start for Vladar on opening night.

“We have a pretty good handle on who is going to start on opening night and we’ll go from there,” smiled Huska, without tipping his hand.

Expect it to be an open competition from that point on, which is healthy.

THE BLUE LINE

Weegar will start the season directing the top power play unit and Rasmus Andersson gets second PP time.

Tyson Barrie and Joel Hanley will be part of the 23-man roster, but will likely sit on opening night.

Barrie and Daniil Miromanov will get time on the man advantage if things don’t click with the other two.

Kevin Bahl, who was acquired for Jacob Markstrom, gets to start with Andersson, Miromanov and Weegar will continue building the chemistry they had last year and Jake Bean will partner with Brayden Pachal, who had a great pre-season as arguably the Flames’ biggest hitter.

THE LINES
Honzek-Kadri-Kuzmenko

Huberdeau-Pospisil-Mantha

Zary-Backlund-Coleman

Lomberg-Rooney-Klapka

Extra: Coronato
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Bahl-Andersson

Weegar-Miromanov

Bean-Pachal

Extras: Hanley-Barrie 
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Vladar

Wolf