STARS SELECT HONKA WITH 14th PICK (7:39 PM CDT)
Willing to overlook some concerns about his lack of size, the Dallas Stars selected highly skilled Finnish defenseman Julius Honka with the 14th overall pick of the Draft.
f Swift Current Broncos defenseman Julius Honka stood three inches taller, he would stand a good chance of challenging Red Deer Rebels blueliner Haydn Fleury to be the concensus top 2014 Draft-eligible defenseman after Aaron Ekblad. As it is, Honka is still considered a strong candidate to be a first-round pick despite his lack of size.
A Finnish import who left the JYP system to come to North America after Swift Current took him in the first round of the 2013 CHL Import Draft, Honka made an immediate impact this season in the Western Hockey League. He posted 16 goals and 56 points in 62 games, while also dressing for Finland at the World Junior Championships. Honka turned 18 on Dec. 3.
Honka adapted very quickly to the North American rink, displaying an above-average level of two-way hockey sense. He is also one of the best-skating defensemen available in this year's Draft and has a heavy and accurate shot as well as a deft passing touch.
One Western Conference NHL scout said that Honka makes intelligent reads on when to pinch in the offensive zone and shows a quick stick and good positioning in his own end of the ice. An excellent skater, even when he does misjudge a play and get caught up ice, he was frequently able to recover and get back in time to break up the play.
Honka benefited from playing with Columbus Blue Jackets prospect Dylan Heatherington (a second-round pick in 2013) as a frequent defensive partner. The left-shooting, 6-foot-4, 210-pound Heatherington meshed very well with the right shooting, 5-foot-11, 174-pound Honka.
Swift Current was coached this season by Mark Lamb. Assistant coach Jamie Heward was a high-scoring offensive defenseman who captured the Eddie Shore Award as a member of the Philadelphia Phantoms' Calder Cup winning team of 1997-98.
At his introductory press conference as the Philadelphia Flyers' new general manager, Ron Hextall opined that while quick puck movement is at a premium around the NHL nowadays, "if you look at the best defensemen in the league, they're not small puck movers. They're bigger guys that you have some physical play, you have puck movers, you have smart guys."
While the Flyers will give preference to bigger-framed defensemen in the Draft if other things are relatively equal, they would not rule out a smaller player if he was clearly the superior player in most other ways. It remains to seen if Honka will prove to be among the exceptions -- such as Kimmo Timonen, St. Louis Blues defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk or Philadelphia prospect defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere -- but the potential is there.
Central Scouting rated Honka as the 11th top skater -- and third defenseman -- on its final North American rankings. The Hockey News projected the Finn 21st on its mid-season Draft rankings. Craig Button had Honka 18th on his final Craig's List for TSN. A Western Conference NHL scout said earlier this month that he thinks Honka "could go anywhere from the top 12 or so to 25th as a guesstimate", while International Scouting Services did not rank Honka in its top 30.
DOUBLE DUTY (7:35 AM CDT)
I was in Texas the last six weeks with my wife and kids, and greatly enjoyed the every day of the time we spent together and scaling back my writing workload just a bit. This week, I have returned to my hometown of Philadelphia -- where I still spend about two-thirds of each hockey season covering the Flyers in person whenever their games and practices are within driving distance -- to cover the 2014 NHL Draft.
Over the course of the next two days, I will update my blogs frequently whenever there is something Stars-related that is worthy of being passed along. I will start a separate Day Two blog tomorrow morning.
This is my second year of pulling in double-duty of live blogging the Stars' activities at the NHL Draft as well as those of the Philadelphia Flyers. Due to the odd pacing of covering the Draft -- long periods of inactivity where there are prolonged opportunities to write and communicate with sources and colleagues, interspersed with frenetic periods where you have to hustle from place to place in a large arena and then back to your computer -- it is quite a challenge to provide ongoing coverage of two teams at the Draft.
For the Stars blog, I will provide thumbnail information about Draft picks as they are made, followed by more extensive looks at the players the following day. In other words, tomorrow's blog will start with a more detailed look at Dallas' first-round pick. Sunday's weekend wrapup will have more on the players who were taken in rounds two through seven.
Hopefully, that will be a more systematic way of doing things. Last year, with Dallas and Philadelphia picking one spot apart and the entire Draft taking place over one day, I frequently found myself playing catchup. This time around, I will be doing less Stars-related instant feedback but I hope the final result by the end of the weekend is that HB readers have a comprehensive look at the Stars' activities at the 2014 Draft.