A decade after the 2016 NHL Draft, Filip Hronek has quietly turned into one of the class’s best bargains.
That matters in Vancouver, even if the Canucks weren’t the team that originally called his name. They got Hronek through a trade with the Detroit Red Wings, and what looked like a solid pickup has aged into something much bigger: one of the strongest values from that entire draft.
For the Canucks, the draft itself was rough. They took Olli Juolevi fifth overall, and he ended up as one of the biggest busts of the last 10 drafts.
Vancouver also missed on its third-, fifth-, sixth-, and two seventh-round selections. Out of six picks, only three ever appeared in NHL games: Juolevi, Will Lockwood, and Rodrigo Abols.
Juolevi played 41 NHL games, including 23 with the Canucks; Lockwood had 54 total, with 28 in Vancouver; and Abols logged 64 NHL games, none with the Canucks. The whole class produced just four points for the organization.
Hronek, though, changed the story.
He went 53rd overall to Detroit in the second round, and the teams picking just before the Red Wings - Chicago, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia - missed badly, with none of their selections at that spot reaching 100 NHL games. Detroit’s choice held up far better than most of the names around him.
And around Hronek, there were plenty of second-round wins. Andrew Peeke, Jordan Kyrou, Alex DeBrincat, Nathan Bastian, Sam Girard, Ryan Lindgren, Carl Grundstrom, and Taylor Raddysh all have more than 300 NHL games on their resumes. In goal, Carter Hart and Filip Gustavsson have become current NHL starters for their teams.
The first round, by contrast, was full of misses. Auston Matthews went first overall, but the early part of the round also featured Jesse Puljujarvi, Juolevi, Alex Nylander, Tyson Jost, Logan Brown, Michael McLeod, Jake Bean, and Luke Kunin - all players who haven’t matched the draft slot attached to their names.
Puljujarvi, Juolevi, and McLeod played overseas last season. Nylander and Brown spent the year in the American League.
Jost, Bean, and Kunin are in bottom-line or depth roles, and not with the teams that drafted them.
There were some late first-round bright spots, including Tage Thompson and Brett Howden, but the round as a whole never really matched the hype.
Hronek’s own case looks better and better the longer the class ages. He has played 533 games, which ranks 13th among all players selected in 2016. Only DeBrincat, Matthews, Clayton Keller, Matthew Tkachuk, Jesper Bratt, Mikhail Sergachev, PL Dubois, Jakob Chychrun, Girard, Charlie McAvoy, Jost, and Patrik Laine are ahead of him in games played.
Among defencemen, Hronek sits fifth in games played.
His point total tells a similar story. Hronek has 287 points, good for 15th in the class overall.
Only Matthews, Tkachuk, Keller, DeBrincat, Bratt, Dubois, Adam Fox, Laine, Thompson, Kyrou, Brandon Hagel, Sergachev, McAvoy, and Chychrun have more. That also puts him fifth among defencemen in scoring.
His assist total stands out even more. Hronek has 239 assists, which ranks 10th in the class.
Only Tkachuk, Keller, Matthews, Fox, Bratt, DeBrincat, Sergachev, McAvoy, and Dubois have more. Among blueliners, that makes him fourth in assists.
So when you zoom out on the whole 2016 class, Hronek’s case gets hard to ignore. He came off the board at the end of the second round, survived a draft packed with high-end misses, and ended up as one of the best values in the entire group. Given the position he plays - a right-shot, top-pairing defenceman - he may be the best value of all, 10 years later.
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