VANCOUVER — With a game face as intimidating as Darth Vader’s, Filip Hronek is not the easiest Vancouver Canuck to get to know.
“He is definitely intimidating at first, for sure,” rookie defenceman Zeev Buium, acquired from the Minnesota Wild in December, told Sportsnet. “When you try to start a little conversation, especially as a younger guy and a new guy, that can be intimidating. But he means so well. Like, he cares about everyone in here from the bottom of his heart. And he’s a great guy.”
Turns out, Hronek not only speaks, but he’s a pretty good leader, too.
Despite proudly going 1,000 days in Detroit earlier in his career without doing a media interview, Hronek could be the next captain of the Canucks. That’s the kind of leader the 28-year-old defenceman has become among teammates.
And that’s the kind of leader he could be for Team Czechia, the 2024 world champions who open the Olympic tournament in Milan against Canada on Thursday.
“I would say right now he’s our best defenceman,” Canucks and Czechia teammate David Kampf said. “We don’t have too many guys playing in the NHL right now for the defence. So, yeah, he’s the biggest player for us.”
Hronek has probably been the biggest player for the Canucks, too.
In an NHL season that has blown up like the Death Star in Vancouver, Hronek is unique among experienced Canucks in that he has been playing the best hockey of his career.
Drew O’Connor is having a good season, as was Kiefer Sherwood before he was traded last month to San Jose. Teddy Blueger has been terrific, but missed three months due to injury. Rookie wingers Linus Karlsson and Liam Ohgren have been impressive. But among veterans, no one is having a season like Hronek.
What makes it even more impressive is that if any Canuck was going to surrender a little when Hughes was traded, it might have been Hronek, who signed an eight-year extension with Vancouver in 2024 partly for the chance to continue partnering with the best defenceman in franchise history.
Instead, Hronek has elevated his game to another level.
“I think you’re bang on,” Canucks coach Adam Foote said. “You’ve seen him do more offensively, like hold the puck, carry the puck. It was almost like Fil (Hronek) would be drawn to get Huggy (Hughes) the puck, right? And it became so obvious that the other teams just cheated on Huggy. When Huggy left, I think Fil held on to more pucks, skated with more pucks, showed his skill set, his ability.
“He’s grown a lot, and he’ll continue to grow. I know he was good friends with J.T. Miller, and (that trade) hurt him, too. We all have buddies in the game. The longer you play, the more you realize guys come and go. That happens in hockey. I just think that Fil had to grow. I thought Fil could get to this point, but probably not this quick. I thought it would take longer. But his leadership, I think he’s ready to take another step there.”
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One of the fascinating Canucks subplots in team dynamics has been the often bumpy integration of young defencemen Buium, 20, Tom Willander, who turns 21 on Monday, and Elias Pettersson, 22 on Feb. 16. The trio is being mentored (and usually paired with) veterans Hronek, Tyler Myers and Marcus Pettersson.
Hronek remembers when he was the 21-year-old rookie in Detroit, trying to crack a Red Wings blue line dominated back in 2018-19 by 30-something veterans Niklas Kronwall, Jonathan Eriksson, Mike Green and Trevor Daley.
“It was nice because I could always get tips from them,” Hronek said. “They were such nice guys, like, always tried to help me.
“But it’s different, coming from college and then you play right away (in the NHL). That one is tough. I played (professionally) back home, so it was different for me. At age 20, when you come in, everything is new, and you’re learning. Every day, every game, you learn something new.”
Ready or not, Buium and Willander are playing for the Canucks straight out of college. Young Pettersson split his rookie season last year between the NHL and the American Hockey League, but played professionally in Sweden before coming to North America.
“I think they have a little bit of everything,” Hronek said. “You know, it’s not easy when you’re that young, and play against the best players (in the world). So they’re learning. But they’re listening. I think they’re doing a really good job of, like, listening and adding to what they already know.”
“He’s very good at using his voice on the bench and on the sheet,” Willander said of Hronek’s counsel. “I think he’s got a lot of heart, you know? You can tell, like, he plays his heart out every night. And I like his game, too. He plays a two-way game. I feel like many guys, when they start getting points, they kind of shy away a little bit from the defensive side. But he plays hard (everywhere).”
Despite what seems to outsiders to be a permanent scowl on Hronek, Buium said his teammate is especially accommodating to young Canucks.
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“I mean, we joke around,” Buium said. “Sometimes at lunch or whatever, he’ll come sit with us and, you know, just be chirping us for whatever. But it’s friendly chirping. It’s that good older guy-younger guy kind of thing, so we enjoy it. He’s been awesome to be around. Obviously, on the ice, and with his work ethic, he’s just dragging everyone into the fight every night.”
What can Buium take from Hronek’s game?
“Just how much he wants to win,” he said. “I feel like I can relate to that (because) I’ve always felt that way, too. It doesn’t matter if you’ve lost eight straight or if you’ve won eight straight; you want to win every game. And he comes with the same mentality every night. Like I said, he’s dragging everyone into the fight.
“I think it’s really good for all of us to see that even though we’ve been struggling, it doesn’t mean that you have to change your attitude. He’s been really good for our locker room. You know you can’t get through a day not being at your best because you’re going to hear about it from Fil. I think that’s a good thing. I think the best teams usually have guys like that, where you can’t get around them. You’ve got to go through them, and you’ve got to live up to their standard. He’s trying to push everyone to be their best.”
Myers, the senior Canuck at age 36, said: “Fil doesn’t get enough credit for how good his hockey mind is. He’s got incredible hockey sense, really understands the game. When you look around the league, he’s one guy that I think doesn’t get enough credit.
“Fil’s a guy that you know can take on as much responsibility as he’s given. He’s quite amazing that way. He’s going to give you the same effort, the same look, whether he plays 30 minutes or 20 minutes. So it’s not too surprising he’s doing what he’s doing.”
Since Hughes was traded, Hronek leads the Canucks with 16 points in 26 games while averaging 24:31 of ice time. And despite Vancouver’s 7-16-3 record over that time — and Hronek frequently drawing the toughest matchups — the right-sided defenceman has a five-on-five shot-share of 50.8 per cent and expected-goals-for of 50.5 per cent.
“I’m just trying to play the same way,” Hronek said. “And I was trying to play the same way when Quinn was here. I’m just trying to be the same always.”
Does he feel like he has taken a step since Hughes left?
“I’m not looking at it this way,” he said. “Like I said, I’m just trying to play the same way, like I have always been playing. So, yeah, I don’t really have an answer for this.”
With Czechia excluded from the 4 Nations Face-Off a year ago, Hronek said he is excited to play best-on-best hockey at the Olympics.
“It’s big for every country,” he said. “Not that different (than) in Canada; it’s big for Czech people.”
What does he like about Team Czechia?
“Everything,” he said, game face on.