would be on a short list of candidates<\/a> once the Canucks are ready to name their 15th captain in team history.<\/p>\nWhile it\u2019s unclear when Vancouver will name another captain, it\u2019s clear that Hronek is one of the primary leaders in the Canucks dressing room.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s certainly been more front and centre in the media of late, especially since the departure of Quinn Hughes.<\/p>\n
But what is he actually like in the dressing room?<\/p>\n
His current defence partner, Elias Pettersson, shed some insight into that after practice on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s one of those guys that really wants everyone to get better,\u201d Pettersson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wants everyone to be focused. He wants to hold the group accountable. He\u2019s a guy that takes the job seriously every day, and he expects a lot of everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
One word came to Adam Foote\u2019s mind when asked about what Hronek is like as a leader in the locker room: \u201cAccountability.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also mentioned that Hronek has played a role in helping fix the locker room in Vancouver.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone leads different, and we trust [Hronek] with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it\u2019s nice to see a room starting to take care of things themselves, which I think, for years, was missing here, and Fil\u2019s a big part of that,\u201d Foote added.<\/p>\n
There you go, all the Canucks locker room needed during their past animosity was a little more Hronek.<\/p>\n
Leadership often takes two forms in sports. Some guys are clear vocal leaders, while others primarily lead by example.<\/p>\n
So, which one is Hronek behind closed doors?<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say he leads by example,\u201d Pettersson admitted. \u201cBut he also does talk in here, so it is a mix.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pettersson added that Hronek is part of a leadership team that has taken on a bigger role for the Canucks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose guys that have been here the whole season have always been leaders, but especially when we lose guys like [Conor Garland] and those guys, like, I feel like these guys [who are still here] have taken an extra responsibility now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut they have always been there, and they\u2019ve always been leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pettersson himself has started to trend upwards after a difficult start to the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe second half of the season has been much better for me,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve been picking up my game more and more lately, and I\u2019m trying to build and finish strong here with the 18 games.\u201d<\/p>\n
The young defenceman has also garnered attention with his physical play. Even other NHL players seem to be letting up in the neutral zone when they see D-Petey closing in on them.<\/p>\n
Does Pettersson think he\u2019s starting to get a reputation as guys shy away from his contact?<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know\u2026 I mean, I\u2019m trying to step up, and I\u2019m trying to be physical. So, yeah, maybe.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old defenceman has seen his role increase of late, as he\u2019s largely played alongside Hronek.<\/p>\n
Over his first 44 games, Pettersson averaged just 14 minutes of ice time per game. During his last 10 contests, however, the young defenceman has averaged 19:01 per game, cresting the 20-minute mark in five of those games.<\/p>\n
Pettersson also leads the Canucks in hits since the Kiefer Sherwood trade, slightly ahead of Teddy Blueger and Hronek.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some are touting him as the next potential captain of the Vancouver Canucks. Heck, even president Jim Rutherford…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-531252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}