Canucks may be about to give up on once beloved defenseman
Filip Hronek is suddenly the most talked-about defenseman in Vancouver, and the Canucks have a decision they cannot keep dodging this offseason.
The 28-year-old right-shot blueliner finished his year second in team scoring with 49 points in 82 games. Only Elias Pettersson topped him.
That production matters more than the surface number. Hronek logs heavy minutes, runs the top right side, and gives Adam Foote a veteran who can be leaned on in any situation.
It also matters because the Canucks just finished 32nd overall at 25-49-8. They allowed 316 goals. A full reset isn't a maybe anymore.
Which puts the front office in a corner. You don't usually trade your most marketable defenseman. Unless the rebuild is real. And in Vancouver, it looks very real.
Hronek carries a $7.25 million cap hit and a full no-movement clause. He picks his door if a door even opens. Nothing happens here without his signature.
Why Ben Kuzma points to the Montreal blueprint
Ben Kuzma of The Province floated the idea that Vancouver should study how Montreal rebuilt: cash in veterans at peak value, then chase distressed assets other clubs gave up on.
Hronek fits the first half of that plan like a glove fits a hand in mid-January. Top-pair, right-shot, drives play, 41 assists. Teams burn picks for less every June.
The return Kuzma floated, a first-round pick plus a top-tier prospect plus a roster piece, isn't a fantasy. That's the live market for a defenseman who eats minutes the way Hronek does.
But the numbers also flash a warning light. He went minus-23 on the season and stacked a minus-11 over his last 10 games. Some of that is the team around him. Some of it isn't.
His underlying scoring tells its own story too. Zero goals over those last 10. The shot just stopped going in down the stretch.
For the record, this is the part where a smart front office stops listening to reasons and starts listening to offers. Waiting on a 28-year-old defenseman to hit peak value twice almost never works.
The other lever is leverage itself. Hronek's no-move means Vancouver can't shop him. They can only ask. That conversation should already be happening.
If he wants in on the rebuild, fine, slot him next to Tom Willander and Zeev Buium and let him teach. If he doesn't, the list of approved destinations needs to land on the GM's desk fast.
Because the worst outcome isn't trading him. It's keeping him through another season like this one and watching the asset bleed value while the kids learn the hard way.
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MAY 24, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Mitch Marner | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Devon Toews | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Jack Drury | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nazem Kadri | 1 | - | 1 | |
| William Karlsson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Gabriel Landeskog | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mark Stone | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Tomas Hertl | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Parker Kelly | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nathan MacKinnon | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Manson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Martin Necas | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | - | - | |
| Brent Burns | - | - | - | |
| Dylan Coghlan | - | - | - | |
| Ross Colton | - | - | - | |
| Pavel Dorofeyev | - | - | - | |
| Nic Dowd | - | - | - | |
| Jack Eichel | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||