Prospect Info: Samuel Honzek (LW/C) Vancouver Giants (Drafted 16th overall 2023)

[Ace Rimmer]

Honzo is such a weird nickname. It makes me think of Hattori Hanzo.

The Honzo and Rango Adventure Hour would be a great title for children's show.

Feels like it should be a cowboy cat and mouse or something.

 

[Figgy44]

The Honzo and Rango Adventure Hour would be a great title for children's show.

Feels like it should be a cowboy cat and mouse or something.

Hmm... the Honzo and Sherriff govich duo. Surrounded by resources like Pelts, Sherry and Corn N avocado.

And the lone Wolf farm hand... Dustin himself every day.

 

[Yepthatsme]

You like making picks like Honzek.
Where a fluke injury takes him out of a top 10 pick and you land him in the middle of the first round. When this guy puts on another 20-25lbs, it's going to be a nice addition. If you get a Mikko Rantanen-lite here you're over the moon.

The injury definitely helped us get him where we did, this was a draft that was so good teams avoided any sort of question mark, that and how bad the Giants were are the only reason he wasn’t a top 10 pick in my opinion.

The thing that intrigues me the most is this is a kid who hasn’t come at all close to growing into his frame yet. He is lanky and has a janky stride, there is so much room for improvement for his skating, speed, shot etc. as he figures out his body and fills out. Could definitely see a Tage Thompson development path (98% chance he never reaches Thompson’s current level) where he just slowly gets better and better until he finally puts it all together at ~24 and takes a massive leap forward. This kid has insane amounts of room to improve which is great considering the level he’s already at.

 

[InfinityIggy]

He will make the team out of camp.

 

[Volica]

He will make the team out of camp.

Wouldn't be shocked to see him get the 9 games.
How long has it been since Calgary's had a prospect that's even been remotely close to doing the sample size play?

 

[Zirakzigil]

Wouldn't be shocked to see him get the 9 games.
How long has it been since Calgary's had a prospect that's even been remotely close to doing the sample size play?

 

[Kranix]

I want to reach out and snap his nose back into place.

 

[Pazucha]

 

[Figgy44]

Awesome stuff. I always love seeing our players interact with kids to grow the game.

Completely random, but I've always wondered if you spent the time playing off handed while coaching kids, whether it actually helps with your hockey IQ and awareness. I've tinkered with this before playing RHS while with kids and LHS in ball hockey and I found that doing so helped me with my scanning ability because I guess I strengthened my body muscles turning in the opposite direction.

I think sometimes we forget that in hockey, you end up building strength in a lopsided manner. Strengthening the other side via the opposite handedness. I felt such training helped with balance and twisting at the hip felt more comfortable when looking around.

For me, back hands etc. still sucked, and I felt like I had better views of my "blind side", but because of how little I did it (day and a half), I could only feel like it made a difference and not see a difference in actual play. I'd be curious to see what would happen if NHL players or prospects tried this. (ie: Honzek doing the whole thing with those kids with a RHS stick).

I also used to do random things like work on skills with my wrong hand first, then transition to my strong handedness second. This allowed me to work on the mental theory and timing of the skill first before combining my BQ/Skill into the equation.

 

[Mobiandi]

Honzo is such a bad nickname

 

[Figgy44]

Honzo is such a bad nickname

Better than Honny though, unfortunately. (Honey/Horny)

 

[Kranix]

They should call him Jules, after Samuel L's character

 

[Figgy44]

SHIRT

Samuel Honzek is really tall

FRESH

First rate excellence, Sam Honzek

 

[Some Other Flame]

Vancouver Giants: Playing in the middle could be front and centre for Samuel Honzek

His efforts at left wing got him picked by the Calgary Flames but coach Manny Viveiros likes the idea of moving him to centre.

theprovince.com

This could be promising

 

[Yepthatsme]

Vancouver Giants: Playing in the middle could be front and centre for Samuel Honzek

His efforts at left wing got him picked by the Calgary Flames but coach Manny Viveiros likes the idea of moving him to centre.

theprovince.com

This could be promising

Think the Flames definitely viewed him as a future centre when they drafted him. A great combination of size, speed and skill at centre could be a nightmare for opposing teams if he develops some physicality to his game.

Already calling it now though, people see somewhat flattish production being separated from Vancouvers other top players while playing a new position in the WHL and a bunch of people write him off. You can already see it all over the main boards with Coronato, and I doubt it will be any different with Honzek unless he still has a monster season which will be difficult.

 

[Rubi]

Vancouver Giants: Playing in the middle could be front and centre for Samuel Honzek

His efforts at left wing got him picked by the Calgary Flames but coach Manny Viveiros likes the idea of moving him to centre.

theprovince.com

This could be promising

I like.

 

[deleted user]

That's hugely encouraging. It would be a great thing going forward. You got this Honzo!

 

[The Nemesis]

Hope you guys don't mind an outsider butting in and bumping this thread. I may be a Sharks fan but I'm also a Vancouver Giants season ticket holder so I thought you might be interested to know that Honzek is expected to suit up tonight for the first time this season after suffering an injury during his time at camp with the Flames.

To coincide with that he was also named the 21st captain in team history and the first import player to get the C.

Giants Name Leadership Group, Led by Captain Sam Honzek - Vancouver Giants

The Giants announced their leadership group on Thursday, which will consist of Sam Honzek, Jaden Lipinski, Ty Halaburda, Mazden Leslie and Logen Hammett.

chl.ca

Jaden Lipinski has been wearing an A all season for the Giants as well.

And just for a final bit of silly (and maybe depressing in a "you wanna feel old?" sort of way ) Flames connection, tonight's game will be against Kelowna and Jarome Iginla's son Tij.

 

[deleted user]

Nice! Thank you for that update. I hope he feels 100%.

 

[Figgy44]

Hope you guys don't mind an outsider butting in and bumping this thread. I may be a Sharks fan but I'm also a Vancouver Giants season ticket holder so I thought you might be interested to know that Honzek is expected to suit up tonight for the first time this season after suffering an injury during his time at camp with the Flames.

To coincide with that he was also named the 21st captain in team history and the first import player to get the C.

Giants Name Leadership Group, Led by Captain Sam Honzek - Vancouver Giants

The Giants announced their leadership group on Thursday, which will consist of Sam Honzek, Jaden Lipinski, Ty Halaburda, Mazden Leslie and Logen Hammett.

chl.ca

Jaden Lipinski has been wearing an A all season for the Giants as well.

And just for a final bit of silly (and maybe depressing in a "you wanna feel old?" sort of way ) Flames connection, tonight's game will be against Kelowna and Jarome Iginla's son Tij.

We don't mind at all. Thanks for sharing! It's highly appreciated!

Feel free to hop in more often and give us the occasional new insights on our prospects. We are cool with posters from other teams coming into our area and posting, as long as they aren't showing up to stir things up and start arguments on purpose. That's not what you're doing, so I'm certain others would be very welcoming of any information you'd be willing to spend time in sharing with us.

Awesome stuff. Thanks again for sharing!

 

[Lunatik]

Hope you guys don't mind an outsider butting in and bumping this thread. I may be a Sharks fan but I'm also a Vancouver Giants season ticket holder so I thought you might be interested to know that Honzek is expected to suit up tonight for the first time this season after suffering an injury during his time at camp with the Flames.

To coincide with that he was also named the 21st captain in team history and the first import player to get the C.

Giants Name Leadership Group, Led by Captain Sam Honzek - Vancouver Giants

The Giants announced their leadership group on Thursday, which will consist of Sam Honzek, Jaden Lipinski, Ty Halaburda, Mazden Leslie and Logen Hammett.

chl.ca

Jaden Lipinski has been wearing an A all season for the Giants as well.

And just for a final bit of silly (and maybe depressing in a "you wanna feel old?" sort of way ) Flames connection, tonight's game will be against Kelowna and Jarome Iginla's son Tij.

Don't mind in the slightest, thanks for posting.

GO HONZO!!

Do you know if there is still talk of Honzek being used at center this year for the Giants?

 

[The Nemesis]

Don't mind in the slightest, thanks for posting.

GO HONZO!!

Do you know if there is still talk of Honzek being used at center this year for the Giants?

He hasn't really been talked about at all while he's been out. I didn't even find out the timeline for his injury until a couple weeks ago and by that point he'd been out for like a month and a half. The unfortunate thing is that because the Giants' major media partner is Sportsnet radio their coverage outside of game days is minimal and even the game day coverage itself is often bumped for Canucks coverage or even random drive-time Canucks talk instead of Giants pre-game.

I'm not sure if it's just standard big-city/lol-junior attitude or because the Giants technically don't play in Vancouver anymore because they got booted out of the Pacific Coliseum so the owners could schedule more traveling shows and attractions and now the team plays an hour outside of Vancouver here in Langley. It's a net positive for me though because now the arena is literally like 10 minutes from home

I would suspect that he probably does get put in at center at least as a test run to see if he can handle it because right now the team has mostly had the 2C role behind Lipinski filled by wingers badly faking playing center or 3rd liners trying to punch above their weight. So it looks like that spot is made for him at which point the decision of whether the Honzek line or Lipinski line are #1 or #2 is largely semantics. Though Lipinski probably gets the edge for now since he's the team's leading scorer and his wingmates are 2nd and 7th in scoring on the team with the 7th place guy is only that low because he missed 8 games playing at the U17s. The probable linemates for Honzek are the team's 4th leading scorer and leading goal-scorer and a Czech import who sits 9th).

I'll have a better idea in a few hours if the Giants tweet the lineup for tonight or failing that it'll be at the game tonight once I can see where he's slotted in.

 

[Lunatik]

He hasn't really been talked about at all while he's been out. I didn't even find out the timeline for his injury until a couple weeks ago and by that point he'd been out for like a month and a half. The unfortunate thing is that because the Giants' major media partner is Sportsnet radio their coverage outside of game days is minimal and even the game day coverage itself is often bumped for Canucks coverage or even random drive-time Canucks talk instead of Giants pre-game.

I'm not sure if it's just standard big-city/lol-junior attitude or because the Giants technically don't play in Vancouver anymore because they got booted out of the Pacific Coliseum so the owners could schedule more traveling shows and attractions and now the team plays an hour outside of Vancouver here in Langley. It's a net positive for me though because now the arena is literally like 10 minutes from home

I would suspect that he probably does get put in at center at least as a test run to see if he can handle it because right now the team has mostly had the 2C role behind Lipinski filled by wingers badly faking playing center or 3rd liners trying to punch above their weight. So it looks like that spot is made for him at which point the decision of whether the Honzek line or Lipinski line are #1 or #2 is largely semantics. Though Lipinski probably gets the edge for now since he's the team's leading scorer and his wingmates are 2nd and 7th in scoring on the team with the 7th place guy is only that low because he missed 8 games playing at the U17s. The probable linemates for Honzek are the team's 4th leading scorer and leading goal-scorer and a Czech import who sits 9th).

I'll have a better idea in a few hours if the Giants tweet the lineup for tonight or failing that it'll be at the game tonight once I can see where he's slotted in.

I live in Lethbridge and we don't hear shit about the Hurricanes either haha.

 

[The Nemesis]

I live in Lethbridge and we don't hear shit about the Hurricanes either haha.

The only regular coverage I can think of is that there's a weekly hour-long show on Sportsnet radio hosted by the play-by-play guy and the rink announcer but it gets so little advertising that I honestly don't even know what day it's on, and there's like a 5 minute weekly feature on one of the Vancouver TV network's 6pm news broadcasts. That's pretty much it outside of coverage in the absolute trash local paper which can't even spare more than half a page in spite of the fact that 90% of the rest of the paper is ads and terribly written articles by the like 2 reporters they have on staff.

There's almost no other coverage of the team unless it involves the ownership group because it includes Michael Buble and one of those HGTV property guys whose name escapes me.

 

[Rubi]

Hope you guys don't mind an outsider butting in and bumping this thread. I may be a Sharks fan but I'm also a Vancouver Giants season ticket holder so I thought you might be interested to know that Honzek is expected to suit up tonight for the first time this season after suffering an injury during his time at camp with the Flames.

To coincide with that he was also named the 21st captain in team history and the first import player to get the C.

Giants Name Leadership Group, Led by Captain Sam Honzek - Vancouver Giants

The Giants announced their leadership group on Thursday, which will consist of Sam Honzek, Jaden Lipinski, Ty Halaburda, Mazden Leslie and Logen Hammett.

chl.ca

Jaden Lipinski has been wearing an A all season for the Giants as well.

And just for a final bit of silly (and maybe depressing in a "you wanna feel old?" sort of way ) Flames connection, tonight's game will be against Kelowna and Jarome Iginla's son Tij.

We don't mind. We're nice here. The assholes tend to cheer for a different team.
Thanks for the info. Come back any time.