Detroit Red Wings: Filip Hronek Surprises at World Championships
By Tyler Kotila
Detroit Red Wings defenseman Filip Hronek has turned some heads at the 2019 IIHF World Championships, which the Red Wings are hoping will translate into next season.
The Detroit Red Wings have a crop of young defenseman between their NHL and AHL rosters, but Filip Hronek definitely turned some heads and made an impact during the 2019 IIHF World Championships. Even though Hronek’s Czech Republic team did not advance to the finals, Hronek played exceptionally well throughout the tournament.
In the 2018-19 Red Wings season, Hronek appeared in forty-six games managing to score five goals with eighteen assists for twenty-three total points in the NHL. Hronek tore it up with Grand Rapids this year with twenty-four points through thirty-one games with the Griffins, but the NHL seemed to be the better place for Hronek. The IIHF World Championship provided Hronek with another chance to prove himself to be an NHL capable defenseman for the Red Wings next season.
Hronek played in ten games for the Czech Republic at the IIHF World Championships where he managed three goals and eleven assists for an astounding fourteen total points. He was a plus-three during the tournament and simply was playing some of his best hockey. Hronek was the top scoring defenseman on his team and in the tournament.
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With the IIHF World Championships concluding with the Finnish team taking the gold medal, Canadians taking silver, the Red Wings got to see some of their players perform really well throughout this tournament. Anthony Mantha and Filip Hronek were at the top of the list of solid performances.
With Steve Yzerman now at the helm of the organization, calling the shots, fans can only hope that this is noted and it continues into next season making Yzerman’s job nice and easy next fall. Hronek proved that he is developing into a real NHL talent and can compete against the talent he will be facing for the coming years in the NHL.
The Detroit Red Wings are hoping that Hronek could possibly excel into that leading defenseman role who can not only put up points but also play defense. The Red Wings have lacked that scoring defenseman since… dare I say it… Nicklas Lidstrom and it would be nice for the Red Wings to get a scoring defenseman back on the top pairing.
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With the draft looming closer and closer, the Detroit Red Wings may be targeting defenseman Bowen Byram if he falls to the sixth pick who would add another young talent to the crop of them. The strategy seems to be, try all the young kids out and see who will be “the guy” for the Red Wings.