DetroitRedWings.com’s Dana Wakiji examines defenseman Filip Hronek’s 2017-18 season “numbers” this morning, and her review is anchored by Wings assistant GM Ryan Martin’s assessment of the slightly-built-but-fearless defenseman:
Quotable: “To start the year in Grand Rapids, we had Fil and and Vili Saarijarvi down there as first-year defensemen and we wanted to give them opportunity in terms of the power play but at the same time, we didn’t want to hand them jobs. Todd Nelson had decisions to make, too, coming back from the Calder Cup championship. He had all his defensemen back but I think to Filip’s credit, he was able to lock down a full-time, everyday job probably five or six games in.
He beat one of our veteran defensemen to run the power play and that’s how Fil got his opportunity, when he beat out Robbie Russo and Ryan Sproul, who we ended up trading to New York. When that spot opened up for somebody to be on the power play, that’s a real credit to Fil, he obviously had a really good year down there. In the short term it does look like Fil – our expectation and I think Fil’s expectation, too – is that he’s coming in here to compete for a job in Detroit and certainly his ability to run the power play adds a dimension to his game.” — Ryan Martin, Red Wings assistant general manager and Griffins general manager
Wakiji continues. As she notes, Hronek’s not exactly big at 6′ tall and a whopping 178 pounds, but Hronek isn’t intimidated by bigger, stronger players at all, and he’s got a sneaky mean streak to him. He’s probably the favorite of the Wings’ potential defensemen to land a spot on the regular-season roster.
