One of the biggest questions of the Vancouver Canucks‘ offseason was answered Tuesday when the club announced it had signed Filip Hronek to an eight-year contract extension.
Hronek’s new deal will see the 26-year-old defenseman earn $7.25 million annually after finishing the season with a career-high 48 points in 81 games as he teams with Canucks captain Quinn Hughes to establish one of the pairings. most formidable defenses in the NHL.
The contributions Hronek made in the regular season allowed the Canucks to reach the playoffs for the first time since the 2019-20 season.
“Filip has fit perfectly into our blue line, giving us stability and strength on the right side,” Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin said in a statement. “His ability to skate, defend and create offense is exactly what is expected of a top defenseman. This season he has shown us all his desire to compete and his willingness to be a leader on this hockey team. We look forward to watching him continue to elevate our group and grow both on and off the ice.”
Part of the Canucks’ transformation under Allvin has seen the front office revamp a defensive unit that had previously struggled with consistency. The first part of that plan came during the 2022-23 season, when the Canucks used the first-round pick they acquired in the Bo Horvat trade with the New York Islanders to acquire Hronek from the Detroit Red Wings at the deadline of changes.
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Hronek was still recovering from a shoulder injury, an injury that would lead to him playing in just four games with the Canucks. He used the offseason to fully recover while Allvin and his front office staff continued to restructure their roster by adding Ian Cole and Carson Soucy in free agency.
A fully healthy Hronek then teamed up with Canucks captain Quinn Hughes to create a top pairing that saw the club go 15-8-1 through December.
Emerging as another possible legitimate option in a crowded Western Conference landscape, Allvin made another move to strengthen his defense by trading for Calgary Flames defenseman Nikita Zadorov before the club made another trade with the Flames in the NHL All-Star break to add center Elias Lindholm. .
The Canucks would go 50-23-9 in winning the Pacific Division title and finished with the third-most points in the West. From there, they beat the Nashville Predators in six games in a first-round series before coming within one game of advancing to the Western Conference finals before being eliminated by the Edmonton Oilers.
Once the season ended, attention turned to how the Canucks would address their roster needs as they looked to reach a back-to-back postseason for the first time since the 2012-13 season.
Hronek was one of the actors at the center of that discussion. He was part of a two-player pending restricted free agent class that also includes goaltender and playoff hero Arturs Silovs.
Even with Hronek under team control, there was still a conversation to be had about how his upcoming deal would impact the Canucks’ plans in what is scheduled to be an active offseason.
Cole, Lindholm, Zadorov and defenseman Tyler Myers are part of an eight-player unrestricted free agent class that could force the franchise to make some tough decisions, and CapFriendly projects they now have $16.828 million in available cap space.
Four of those UFAs are defensemen and Hronek’s new contract means he is now one of four defensemen under contract for next season, while he is one of four Canucks who have more than three years left on their current deals with the club.
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