Grading The Filip Hronek Trade

Filip Hronek Trade Grades

The deadline gets crazier and crazier. Filip Hronek is now being traded to Vancouver. The up-and-coming defenseman also came at a pretty hefty cost. The Canucks gave up a first-round pick and a second in exchange for the 25-year-old and a fourth rounder. Even more intriguing is that Patrik Allvin sent the first rounder they acquired in the Bo Horvat trade to the Islanders.

They are making a pretty big gamble on the Isles to make the playoffs. Because if not, Detroit could find themselves with a juicy first-round pick right outside the lottery. With another season after this on a $4.4 million cap hit, they’re also going to have to think about an extension pretty soon.

In any event, let’s grade these two teams.

Detroit Red Wings: B+

This could be Detroit’s way of bowing out of the playoff race, similar to the Washington Capitals. However, it’s not the end of the world for a team that needs their young stars to continue developing.

Furthermore, Steve Yzerman would have had to make a complex cap situation even more complicated next summer. On top of Dylan Larkin’s extension and their spending spree this summer, dollars are starting to be hard to come by. In any event, they got good value out of a guy who is currently on a career year.

Check out what JFresh had to say about him:

That last part is key. He was probably gonna ask closer to $6-7 million in his next deal. Possibly a figure Yzerman wasn’t comfortable paying. In any event, Detroit is able to get some very helpful draft capital that they could either invest in on draft night or elsewhere.

Vancouver Canucks: B-

I just don’t get it from Vancouver’s point of view. Why part ways with a draft pick that could have value? As an Islanders fan I can’t even tell you how they’re going to end up this season. In terms of pure bodies, he’s going to replace the departed Luke Schenn. But I don’t know what else this move really does.

Oh wait, here’s an idea: it ruins their cap situation. In terms of cap commitments for next season, they are over the ceiling. A team 19 points out of a playoff spot is going to field one of the most expensive teams in the league.

I think we can all say that Elias Pettersson is very, very good at hockey. So is Quinn Hughes. But there are far better ways of finding complementary pieces for them than this.

Vancouver has given this core a couple of years to show something. They didn’t. So why not rebuild things the proper way? It just makes no sense. Selling off guys like Brock Boeser, Conor Garland and others puts them in such a better position. Instead, they have a bloated roster and not too many assets.

This is a head-scratching deal. Why did Detroit bail on one of their better players this season? Why did Vancouver buy him for a lot of value when they should be selling? We probably will never know. But it doesn’t matter. Filip Hronek is a Canuck and we still got less than 48 hours to go in the deadline.

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