The current version of the Vancouver Canucks is the best the franchise has put on the ice for more than a decade. There is a fair amount of hope in putting together a deep postseason run. It’s reasonable to assume everybody involved with the team from fans to staff and players is thinking about this and only this year.
That, however, might be a short-sighted approach to what’s coming in just a mere few months when the season and the playoffs will be over and it will be time to get engines re-started ahead of next season. And this summer might be a tough one in Vancouver.
In a column published on Thursday, March 21, SportsNet analyst Luke Fox ranked the best upcoming restricted free agents, slotting Canucks defenseman Filip Hronek in the No. 1 position.
“Right-shot defenceman in his prime,” Fox described Hronek as. Right after that, however, the analyst brought the bad news for Vancouver’s fans.
“(Canucks) General Manager Patrik Allvin confirmed to Dan Riccio and Satiar Shah of Sportsnet 650 that a long-term extension offer has already been presented to Hronek’s camp,” Fox noted. “Irfaan Gaffar reports that the Canucks’ offer was worth in the vicinity of $52 million over eight years, and it was rejected.”
As things stand, barely three months before free agency opens on July 1, the Canucks and Hronek seem to be at a standstill and not close to reaching an agreement for the defenseman to stay put in Vancouver after this season.
Canucks Don’t Want Filip Hronek to Break the Salary Scale
Hronek has played all 72 games this season with the Canucks. He has scored 5 goals and assisted 40 for 45 points and a season-long average of 0.62 points per game. He’s also logged a quite bulky 1,339 time on ice on 5×5 play, ranking 11th on that particular leaderboard as one of the most reliable and used players across the NHL, per PuckPedia data.
As Fox pointed out in his article, the Canucks spent two high-price (a first- and a second-rounder) draft picks to acquire Hronek from the Detroit Red Wings on March 1, 2023. That, of course, might force Vancouver’s hand in paying the defenseman whatever amount he asks them for considering the hefty price they paid so recently to land him.
“We like Filip. He’s been a good fit for us,” Allvin told Dan Riccio and Sat Shah on the Canucks Central show on March 8. “We want to keep him. We have put a contract offer out to him, which we feel is fair, so hopefully, we can get a deal done with Filip to stay here in Vancouver.”
That offer, which Hronek reportedly rejected, would pay the defenseman $52 million over eight seasons for a $6.5 million AAV. That figure would have Hronek earning way less money than captain Quinn Hughes, whose $7.85 AAV is clearly above that rumored number.
“No doubt, Vancouver wants to keep Hronek’s AAV under that of captain Hughes ($7.85 million), but the defenceman will push to get his salary into the [$7-plus million],” Fox wrote.
Vancouver has Already Gone Through a Similar Situation
An interesting comparison to Hronek’s situation can be found in Vancouver, where fellow Canuck Elias Pettersson initially refused to ink an extension but ended up signing a maximum contract on March 2 worth $92.8 million over eight years.
Last summer, Pettersson opted for waiting instead of instantly signing an extension with the Canucks “to see where this team was heading,” in his own words as he told the story of his extension at the press conference announcing it.
“I was an RFA at the end of the (2024) season and I didn’t feel the rush to sign,” Pettersson told reporters. “Then more talks with Jim and Patrik, seeing the direction on the team, I always wanted to stay here but just seeing the commitment from them, we wanted to get it done.”
While not the exact same situation (Pettersson was still under contract through this season), both sides ended up agreeing to an extension eventually given the interest was coming from the player and the franchise.
“Certainly, there is some common ground to be found here,” Fox thinks. “Though Hronek does wield the leverage of arbitration and could walk to UFA after one more season.”
This feels like it will eventually get solved with Hronek lowering his demands and Vancouver possibly breaking the $7 million AAV barrier (or at least reaching it) to keep the Czech defenseman in tow for years to come.
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