With Stephen Johns getting closer to a return and Julius Honka sliding down Ken Hitchcock’s depth chart, the Stars sent the 21-year-old defender to the AHL on Tuesday.
Hitchcock was asked about Honka on Tuesday, here is what he had to say:
“I think it depends on his attitude. If Honka goes down with the right attitude, which we are thinking he will and know he will, then obviously he is going to be back here quickly. But he needs to play. He needs to play 25 minutes a night. He’s going to get the chance to do that down there. What we don’t want him to do is get too far away from the game because he is a risk player and he’s got to play with risk in his game. When you sit out and you come back in, you get too cautious. We thought this was the best. He gets to play a lot of games in a short period of time. We thought this was best for him to get playing that risky game he is so good at.”
Honka will get a heavy workload in the AHL over the next week. The Texas Stars have four games in seven days, the AHL coaching staff is expected to play him in all situations.
A couple factors led to Honka’s demotion.
1. Greg Pateryn came in and impressed the coaching staff. After sitting for the first nine games of the season the defenders has acquitted himself well enough for the coaches to keep him in the lineup when Johns returns. That doesn’t leave any room for Honka on the right side.
2. Jamie Oleksiak will likely be the healthy scratch when Johns returns, but his spot in the lineup kept Honka from getting an opportunity to prove himself. If Oleksiak had been scratched Honka would have had a similar opportunity to Pateryn, and could have been a lineup fixture by now.
In a way this is the right decision.
If the coaching staff isn’t going to play Honka, the Stars owe it to the young player — who is waiver exempt — to find the best option to get him playing and keep him sharp. You may not agree with who the top-six defenders are, but if Honka isn’t in the top seven it makes more sense for him to be in the AHL.
It’ll be interesting to see how long Honka spends in the AHL and I’ll be interested to watch the tape from the Texas Stars game on Thursday.
Catch-up links
Housekeeping notes
— There will be a call for mailbag questions later today. Keep an eye out on Twitter and Reddit to get your questions in. You can also leave your questions in a comment on this post.
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