Filip Hronek Speaks Out On His Canucks Future

The Vancouver Canucks are deep into a full tear-it-down-to-the-studs rebuild. But their No. 1 blueliner is still around, and Filip Hronek—with six years remaining on his eight-year deal—fully intends to keep it that way. 

An absolute bargain these days, at a $7.25 million cap hit, Hronek would be heavily in demand if the Canucks were ever to consider trading him. But that request won't be coming from him, as told to David Alter of The Hockey News.

We like the city, and obviously the fans are great in Vancouver. They were supporting us even though we didn't have a good year last year, and they still are showing up to the games, and it was sold out. Just like it overall in Vancouver, and that's why I signed there for eight years.

He's happy to be a mentor for the young charges the Canucks are bringing in, like top young stud Zeev Buium, who came to Vancouver as the centerpiece of the Quinn Hughes trade with Minnesota.

"He's listening and he wants to get better every day, and it's the same for [Tom Willander] and [defenceman Elias Pettersson]. It's easy to deal with them or mentor them because they're listening and you know they're trying to get better and want to be better players."

But even as the 28-year-old embraces his mentor role, he insists that even more so, it's about the commitment he made to the city when he signed that deal two summers ago. And he feels the team is on the rise. 

"There's been a lot of changes over the summer, and I hope we're going the right direction, and we're gonna be way better than last year." 

The Canucks finished last season with the worst record in the NHL, 25-49-8 for just 52 points. Hronek played all 82 games and logged a career-high 25 minutes of ice time per night. He also hit career bests with 49 points, 133 hits and 100 blocked shots.