The Canucks are getting a big boost to their blue line.

Unfortunately, we’re talking about the Abbotsford Canucks. On the bright side, in this particular instance, it also means that the big club will eventually get a boost to their blueline.

On Wednesday morning, Vancouver Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin announced that the club had sent defenceman Filip Hronek down to the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks for conditioning.

Hronek has been out since November 27th, when in the dying moments of the Canucks’ 5-4 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, Hronek went awkwardly into the boards and immediately grabbed at his shoulder/collarbone area.

But it isn’t just an upper-body injury that Hronek is returning from. In early December, the Canucks announced that Hronek would be out eight weeks after undergoing a successful procedure on his lower body. The Canucks said that Hronek wouldn’t require surgery on his upper body injury, which suggests that because the upper-body injury needed time to heal, both parties figured they should get the lower-body procedure, which they likely could have waited until the offseason to do, out of the way while Hronek was sidelined away.

The only downside to this, of course, is that a lower-body procedure typically limits a player’s conditioning, which might explain why the Cnaucks are giving Hronek a conditioning stint in Abbotsford. Hronek has been skating since at least December 27th, as Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet shared that update over a week ago before Christmas.

The Canucks miss Hronek, and they missed him even more when Quinn Hughes went down with his hand injury prior to the holiday break, which left the Canucks with a first pairing of Derek Forbort and Tyler Myers.

Hronek has logged heavy minutes for the Canucks this season. Prior to his injury, Hronek was averaging 23:36 minutes of ice time, topping out over 25 minutes in six of his 21 games and over 24 minutes in 10 games. This includes his 27:38 time logged against the Ottawa Senators, when he did an admirable job filling in for Hughes after he was ejected for a cross-check on Josh Norris.

Abbotsford has a home back-to-back against the Henderson Silver Knights this weekend, with the first game taking place on Friday, and the second on Saturday.