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

[salwan]

I don’t know if he was ever officially labeled as a project, but every scouting report as well as the eye test came out the same. A 6’4, 185 pounder with good skating despite a flawed and janky stride, who wasn’t using his body to his advantage yet and dealing with injury issues. To me that screams a guy has the potential to make huge jumps as he adds mass and power, which will only benefit his skating while he also gets used to his height and fixes his mechanics. So while not labeled a project, definitely a guy you draft for what he might look like at when he’s 210 pounds and done growing, which was impressive because he was absolutely piling up the points in his draft year before his injury.

Said it back then and I’ll say it again, if he didn’t get injured his draft year he was a top 10 pick. Guy started his season with 30 points in 21 games as a WHL rookie that year. How good he looks offensively only came to a surprise to people that didn’t pay attention, and he’s still no where close to a finished project. Guy took this leap after 1 year of training with a fellow pro, and dropped a quote that said this was the first summer he’s really added in mobility work.
He has so much room to grow still.

here's a translated quote from a Slovak journalist:

If you're wondering where Samo Honzek has been so far, I'll just add this quote from after last season: "It was shaky, as I was sidelined for almost three months early on due to an injury to my abdominal muscle, which I had torn near my groin. Luckily they didn't have to operate on it. After that, I only had a few games at the club and immediately went to the junior championships in Sweden. I had some minor health problems afterwards as well, it was hard to keep going, so I'm also a bit angry with myself that the year didn't go as planned." He had already hinted at his potential at the World Junior Championships when he played 'mature' hockey. Now he's locked himself in the gym with Martin Pospisil, got stronger, put on some weight and as a result his performances in preparation have been awesome.

So it seems that he was struggling with injuries all of last season and couldn't really focus on getting better.

 

[Figgy44]

here's a translated quote from a Slovak journalist:

If you're wondering where Samo Honzek has been so far, I'll just add this quote from after last season: "It was shaky, as I was sidelined for almost three months early on due to an injury to my abdominal muscle, which I had torn near my groin. Luckily they didn't have to operate on it. After that, I only had a few games at the club and immediately went to the junior championships in Sweden. I had some minor health problems afterwards as well, it was hard to keep going, so I'm also a bit angry with myself that the year didn't go as planned." He had already hinted at his potential at the World Junior Championships when he played 'mature' hockey. Now he's locked himself in the gym with Martin Pospisil, got stronger, put on some weight and as a result his performances in preparation have been awesome.

So it seems that he was struggling with injuries all of last season and couldn't really focus on getting better.

Sew some mesh into this guy ASAP to stop the injuries! (Mikael Backlund reference to when he was injury prone, but after an ab surgery to sew mesh into the affected areas, he's been quite healthy overall).

Super glad to see him find a program that has been working for him. I wonder if this means playing at C will happen (if demoted) and if his progression also rubs off on Lipinski.

EDIT: It's kinda crazy that like Valimaki, quite a few of us are kinda like, "Huh?" on the guy after drafting, but we start to see what our scouts saw a few years later. I just hope he doesn't get permanently derailed like Valimaki. It's also kinda crazy to believe that the original whisperings of a potential Rantanen type player were laughed at or dismissed (in hopes not to jinx it) for being a total pipe dream... but now we're actually kinda like, "Oh shit, there might actually be something like that in him."