28-04-2025
Honzek to play for Slovakia at World Championships
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This spring, though, he's going to have the chance to make it memorable for the right reasons.
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Miroslav Satan, the longtime NHLer who now serves as the president of the Slovak national team, announced that the 20-year-old winger will be joining his country's national team for the upcoming IIHF World Hockey Championships.
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Honzek spent the majority of the 2024-25 season with the Calgary Wranglers in the AHL, recording eight goals and adding 13 assists in his first season as a pro. He started the season with an eye-catching training camp that earned him a spot on the Calgary Flames roster, although he played only five NHL games.
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Injuries disrupted his season, though, first when he suffered a head injury while trying to make his mark in the NHL and then again when he fractured his ankle in February. He did return in March, though, but still only managed four goals in 2025.
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The Flames' first-round pick, 16 th overall, in the 2023 NHL Draft is still viewed as one of the higher-ceiling prospects in the organization's system and will surely want to be pushing for more NHL minutes at training camp this fall.
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Some time with the national team can't hurt. The injuries meant he didn't play as much hockey as he otherwise might have this season.
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The Flames will be well-represented at the world championships this year, with MacKenzie Weegar representing Canada, Rasmus Andersson and Mikael Backlund playing for Sweden and Dan Vladar joining the Czechia team. It's expected that Ryan Huska will be formally named to the Canadian coaching staff in the coming days.
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Matt Coronato was going to join the Americans, but the Flames announced Monday that after an MRI last week, the young winger had made the preventative decision to withdraw from the tournament to focus on recovery.
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