Eventful day for Filip Hronek as he abruptly dismisses injury speculation

Overall, the 2023-24 campaign was the best of Filip Hronek's six seasons in the NHL to date. He set a number of career bests, including 81 games played, 43 assists, 48 total points, 87 blocks and a +33 rating.

However, if you break down Hronek's season into two parts, there is more of a disparity in respect of how it played out for him. On the positive side, he produced 36 points during his first 42 games of the regular season, as part of one of the league's top pairings with Quinn Hughes.

Unfortunately for the 26-year-old it all seemed to go wrong during the second half of the 2023-24 campaign, as he produced just 12 further points in his final 39 games of the regular season. This lack of production extended into the playoffs, with just two points in 13 contests.

Injured or not?

This led to speculation that Hronek was dealing with an injury during the second half of the season. As you would have anticipated, he was asked if this was the case during his end of season presser with the media on Thursday.

However, the 2016 second round draft pick was not willing to entertain this question, simply answering no. As per Rob Williams of the Daily Hive, when pressed on the issue, the blue-liner said: "Well, what do you want me to say? What do you want me to say on an injury, if I didn’t have injury. What do you want me to say? I said no."

While the Vancouver media might have felt like they deserved more -- they didn't by the way -- the reality is they knew what to expect from Hronek ahead of his presser. He's never been one to speak much to the media or come across as particularly engaging, during his time in the NHL. (This is not a criticism mind, given that some people just aren't much for talking in public.)

However, what does make the former Detroit Red Wing's response about a potential injury interesting, is that it's pretty much an open secret he's been dealing with an arm issue for the past few months. In fact, Sportsnet's Dan Murphy took to social media to say he was telling a fib.

That Murphy used the word fib rather than lie, alludes to no one holding this against Hronek as such. The fact he's not willing to use any injury as an excuse for his dip in production as the season progressed, is actually to be commended.

Hronek having fun with the Canucks

Aside from the denial of an injury and short answers in general to the questions he was asked, the most positive thing to come out of Hronek's presser, was that he enjoyed his first full season in Vancouver. As per Williams, he said: "Season was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it. We had such a good group of guys, so it was a lot of fun."

Fun might not be how certain members of the media would discussing interviews with the Czech Republic native. However, that he would use this word to describe how the 2023-24 season went with the Canucks, is telling.

It obviously helps that Hronek was playing on a contender and got to experience his first exposure to playoff hockey in the NHL, with the promise of more to come as the organisation aims to build on a successful season. For all intents and purposes he is enjoying his time in Vancouver, but just don't ever expect this to extend to interviews/pressers with the media.

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