The Calgary Flames will be back at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Saturday night against the Anaheim Ducks, but they’ll have to do it without Sam Honzek.
Flames head coach Ryan Huska said Honzek is not available for the game while he continues to be evaluated for an injury, one that was presumably suffered in Thursday’s game against Colorado.
“No update,” said Huska. “He’s still being looked at. He will not be available for us tonight.”
Honzek also missed Friday’s practice, according to Postmedia’s Danny Austin, and he was not on the ice for Saturday’s optional morning skate.
The young winger had dressed for each of Calgary’s first four regular-season games. He spent time alongside Mikael Backlund and Joel Farbabee in two of those contests, then more recently skated with Ryan Strome and Martin Pospisil. He also carved out a regular job on the top penalty-killing unit, lining up as a forward with Backlund to start most kills.
What makes the situation a little odd is that Honzek’s ice time against Colorado looked steady from start to finish. He didn’t miss a shift over the course of the game and finished with 15:53 of ice time, just ahead of Pospisil at 14:46 and Strome at 14:39, largely because of his heavy penalty-killing work. At five-on-five, the usage was basically even.
He was credited with four hits and a shot block in the game, and one of those hits came after a Nazem Kadri contact in the early part of the second period. Still, as always in hockey, the official scoring of contact can be messy, so that doesn’t tell the whole story of every collision Honzek absorbed.
For Honzek, it’s the latest setback in a string of injury trouble since the Flames picked him in the first round of the 2023 NHL Draft. Since then, he’s dealt with a skate cut, an abdominal injury, a facial injury, a concussion, a nagging lower body injury, and a shoulder injury that required season-ending surgery last year.
When he has been able to stay on the ice, he’s looked the part of a dependable 200-foot forward. For now, though, Calgary is waiting on the next update.
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Now the pressure is on to find a trade before the situation gets uglier. Zarys contract can be bought out at one-third value, which would leave Calgary with a $600,000 cap charge for two more seasons, and contract termination remains on the table if nothing materializes. For a team already trying to sort out its lineup and its books, it is the kind of decision that can linger well beyond one players spot on the roster. [Read more 🡒]