Where is this rumor coming from that Honzek has a low ceiling? Did people just read is height and come to that conclusion? He is pretty widely viewed as a super high potential player, with most questions coming from his injury causing limited viewings and this being his first season on North American soil. The guy is large, is fast and not just for his height, and has great finish both from in tight and from afar with great offensive instincts to boot. Comparisons mentioned have been Rantanan and even Draisaitl from Conroy himself. Obviously there’s no guarantee he hits this ceiling or else he would’ve been taken much higher but this isn’t some scrub who was picked because somebody measured his height.
I think some of the scouting reports are incomplete due to certain scouts not being able to see him enough due to injury. I think that's why there seem to be contradictory ones out there. Poor wording contributes to it as well.
The clip that
@Dack posted, if you watched him, you'd assume his skating was garbage and he's slow. A few reports say that his skating is ugly and slow. However, in the last bit of that highlight compilation, you see him with some ridiculous blistering speed on open ice. I forget which Russian player in the past was a tall and super fast freight train, but Honzek in that clip reminded me of that guy.
IMO, the reality is that his skating is awkward and acceleration slow. I think it's in the same range as Tkachuk and Monahan. But, top speed on open ice wise, he can challenge and likely exceed most of our current roster players. So assuming that his skating overall is Tkachuk or Monahan level is wrong. He can and likely will have an overall skating that is above average after working on it vs Tkachuk and Monahan will always have slightly below to average skating.
Then there's the fact that he has not stand out elite skill, so most posters assume it's a safe pick. But if you view the clips, he does almost everything reasonably well. Being a jack of all trades is its own type of elite package. If Honek figures everything out with a good level of consistency, that's a unicorn in this league. If not, he's that low floor interesting but frustrating player like ZadORRov. Zadorov channeling Bobby Orr regularly is a league top elite dman. But he isn't consistent, so he's a solid second pairing calibre guy instead. This is the risk with Honzek.
That being said, when I started digging into Honzek, it reminds me of my confusion with Valimaki when we first drafted him over Liljegren. But the scouts were right on that one. We almost has a 2/3 dman out of him before a combination of injury/Covid shut down/Sutter brutally derailed him from second pairing to bottom pairing. I'm warming up to Honzek in the same way. I had no idea about him at all before the draft, but I see the logic and I'm excited about the prospect we chose.
thewincolumn.ca
) and has the tenacity to fight adversity in the right way from very early in their careers vs cutting corners and losing out long term.
