The Quinn Hughes trade has come and gone, and we are told more Vancouver Canucks trades are on the way.

We have heard plenty of discussion about which Canucks are most likely to go next – names like Kiefer Sherwood and Evander Kane – but little talk about who has taken over Hughes’ status as the team’s most valuable trade chip. The answer, however, seems to be about as clear-cut as it gets. So long as we discount those assets too young to consider trading – like Tom Willander and Braeden Cootes and the like – then the current Canuck with the most potential trade value is undoubtedly Hughes’ former blueline partner Filip Hronek.

To borrow a common hockey parlance, “and it ain’t even close!” Really, Hronek profiles like a hockey-valuators dream. He’s a right-shooting, top-pairing defender, which is the rarest and most coveted type of asset in all of hockey. He just turned 29 last month, meaning he’s still safely ensconced within his playing prime. He’s under contract at what has quickly become a bargain rate of a $7.25 million AAV until the year 2032, when he’s 34-years-old. Just based on those most surface-level details, the interest in Hronek from around the rest of the league should be enormous.

Then there are the finer details. Hronek is a true top-pairing talent at the very least. Right now, he is averaging 24:23 a night, good for the 13^th-most minutes in the entire NHL, and those minutes should go up the longer we go past Hughes’ departure. In terms of minutes among right-shooting D, Hronek ranks fourth overall, trailing just Cale Makar, Moritz Seider, and Brock Faber. It’s what they call ‘elite company.’

With 17 points through 33 games, Hronek is pacing for about 42 points on the full season, which would be his second-most ever. And that’s while taking on mostly difficult deployments. Despite all that, and despite being asked to carry so heavy a load – first, with Hughes out of the lineup due to injury, and now with him out of the lineup permanently – Hronek has managed to outscore the opposition at a rate of 27-18 at five-on-five this season. That’s with the Canucks, as a whole, sporting a goal-differential of -20. Hronek’s success this season has truly been remarkable, and it may be shaping up to be the best overall campaign of his career to date, despite everything going on around him.

When the Canucks acquired Hronek from the Detroit Red Wings in January of 2023, he was a younger, more undeveloped asset who was believed to have some top-pairing upside, but had yet to hit it yet. He was only under contract until the end of the 2023-24 season, and he had clearly fallen behind Seider on the Red Wings’ RD depth chart. Still, the Canucks had to pay a fairly mighty price for him all the same. It cost the New York Islanders’ first round pick, previously acquired in the Bo Horvat trade and top-12 protected – it would wind up being the 17^th overall pick and Axel Sandin Pellikka. It also cost the Canucks’ own 2023 second round pick, which wound up at 43^rd overall. For what it’s worth, Hronek also came with a fourth round pick attached, which the Canucks used to select Ty Mueller.

Suffice it to say that if Hronek were to be valuated today, after having developed into a top-pairing talent and becoming attached to a very reasonable long-term contract, his trade value would be much higher. And that’s not getting into the extremely-limited market for right-shooting defenders out there right now.

The offers the Canucks get for him, should they put him on the table, would not approach the outrageously-rich return they got for Hughes from Minnesota. But just as many teams should be in on the bidding – perhaps more, given the perpetual need for D. If Hughes returned four assets of at least first-round-pick-value, one has to imagine that Hronek might return two or three. Whereas Hughes returned a better-than-blue-chip prospect in Zeev Buium, Hronek should at least be entailing offers of ‘first and blue-chip prospect’ combos.

That’s more than the Canucks could reasonably expect to get back for Sherwood, Kane, or any of their other pending UFAs waiting to be sold. It’s more than they could get if they put Elias Pettersson on the market at his current price. It’s more than they would get for Conor Garland, or Thatcher Demko, or, as we said at the outset, anyone outside of their top prospects and picks.

There should be little doubt that Hronek is now the team’s most valuable trade chip. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that they should trade him.

The Canucks sure seem to have committed to at least some form of rebuild. But one has to know that, even then, the goal will be to rebuild as quickly as possible. Organizationally, they are probably hoping to return to playoff contention within a few seasons, maybe three at the most. Hronek is still under contract for five. So, there is every chance that Hronek could still be around to participate in whatever era comes next – and, in his early-30s, he’ll presumably still be effective at that time.

The Canucks have an excellent young RD in Tom Willander, and his play as a rookie suggests he will mature into a top-four talent at the very least, and perhaps more. It might be tempting to think that having a ready replacement for Hronek makes it all the more easy to trade him. At the same time, it’s hard not to like the idea of Willander’s first few seasons in the NHL being sheltered by a veteran top-pairing D, capable of taking on tough matchups and preventing Willander from ever becoming overwhelmed.

There is also Victor Mancini, a good RD prospect in his own right, to consider. The plan for next season is surely to have both Willander and Mancini in the mix, and that will leave Hronek and Tyler Myers as the veteran component of the right side. Myers, with his no-trade clause, seems like he might be difficult and unwilling to move. So, does the team go through 2025-26 with four RD they’d rather have in the lineup each night, or do they move a vet? And if they move a vet, is it Hronek?

One has to think that the 2026 Entry Draft will have a big impact on that. Should the Canucks end up with a top-three pick, and should they use that pick on Keaton Verhoeff, the 17-year-old star RD currently vying for Team Canada at the WJC, well then that would be all the more reason to move Hronek.

But until that actually happens, the Canucks can reasonably look into the future and see that they’ve got two pretty guaranteed top-four RD pieces in Hronek and Willander, and then some question marks – Myers, in terms of his longevity, and Mancini in terms of his long-term outlook. Until the team secures another definitive top-four piece on the right side, it does make some sense to hang on to Hronek. Otherwise, the Canucks run the risk of going through their rebuild and still needing to get their hands on another quality RD – which is, as we said, the rarest and most coveted asset in hockey.

They don’t say ‘one RD in the hand is worth two in the bush,’ but maybe they should.

For now, we think it probably makes the most sense to hold on Hronek, and plan to use him for at least the next 2026-27 season, and to continue to make decisions from there. Nobody really wants to see Willander forced into top-pairing minutes as a sophomore.

But there’s no reason the Canucks shouldn’t at least keep one ear open to offers at the same time. And if something comes around that truly blows their socks off, then maybe they should jump at it. A rebuilding process gives them time to figure out gaps in the lineup, and if opening up one results in a massive return, that’s probably worth their while.

Hronek is now the Canucks’ most valuable trade chip, but they should only cash that chip in if it’s the proverbial offer-too-good-to-refuse.