Ajoie Extends Contract Of Hurricanes Prospect

Finnish defenseman Anttoni Honka, a 24-year-old Carolina Hurricanes prospect who has been playing this season in Switzerland on loan to HC Ajoie, has signed a two-year contract extension, the National League club announced on Tuesday.

Honka has nine points in 18 National League games this season, which makes him Ajoie’s top scorer among defenseman despite missing the team’s first 10 games.

His older brother, former Dallas Stars defenseman Julius Honka, also plays in Switzerland with HC Davos.

A native of Jyväskylä, Finland, Honka had played almost all of his career with local club JYP up to and including the 2023-24 season. He has 127 points and 72 penalty minutes in 253 career Liiga games – most of which are with JYP but he also had an 11-game stint with Jukurit in 2018-19. In his rookie year as a pro, at age 17, he was a member of the JYP team that won the Champions Hockey League in 2017-18, beating Elias Pettersson’s Växjö Lakers in the final.

Honka was picked in the third round, 82nd overall, by Carolina in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. So far his only season in North America was 2022-23, which he spent with the Chicago Wolves, the Hurricanes’ AHL farm team. He recorded 34 points in 70 games.

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Honka attended the Hurricanes’ training camp at the start of the 2024-25 season but was cut on Oct. 6 and loaned to Ajoie. It’s not specifically mentioned in the club’s announcement if there is an escape clause should Honka receive an NHL offer before his contract ends in 2027.

At the international break, Ajoie sits last in the National League standings with five regulation wins in 28 games. The team’s lineup includes French national team captain and ex-NHLer Pierre-Édouard Bellemare, who signed as a free agent in late October.