On Thursday, news broke that Vancouver Canucks defenceman Filip Hronek had been injured in Czechia’s preliminary game against Finland.

On Friday morning, CHEK TV’s Rick Dhaliwal offered up the following update on Hronek, courtesy of Czech General Manager Jiří Šlégr:

“Just talked with Jiří Šlégr, the GM of the Czech national hockey team, he says defenseman Filip Hronek was injured last night, he is seeing the doctor right now,” Dhaliwal wrote in a post to X.com. “Sleger says it is [too] early to say if the injury is serious or not, and they will know more later today.”

Hronek was injured in the third period of what would end up being a 3-2 win for Czechia. Hronek was tackled and pinned to the back of the net by Finnish forward Mikael Seppälä, and was left in a vulnerable position until teammate Daniel Voženílek stepped in to pull Seppälä off of Hronek. Here’s the video:

Post game, Czech hockey reporter posted the following (translated from Czech):

“…On top of that, Filip Hronek got injured too. The coach was obviously pissed off at the opponent’s unnecessarily rough play. There’s a question mark over Hronek. ‘I’m afraid it might be something more serious,’ the coach feared.”

Czechia’s first real game of the 2026 Men’s World Championship comes on May 15th, when they take on Denmark.

Of course, we will keep you updated on Hronek’s status as more information becomes available.

UPDATE: Speaking on Sportsnet 650’s Halford and Brough, Dhaliwal said he spoke again with Šlégr, who added that Hronek should be okay, and that they’ll know tomorrow.

The bad news kept coming for Canucks players participating in these exhibition games, as Swedish forward Nils Höglander also appears to have been injured in Sweden’s exhibition game vs. Switzerland. Unlike in the case of Hronek, there didn’t seem to be a play that stood out to explain why Höglander departed, but he did not return after the first period.

There was no update provided about Höglander just yet, and this could absolutely be a case of a player feeling something and erring on the side of caution in a meaningless tune-up game.

UPDATE: Dhaliwal says early word on Höglander is that it’s not a serious injury.

On a more positive note, Liam Öhgren opened the scoring for Sweden in their game against Switzerland. The Swiss fell apart in the second period, allowing four unanswered goals from Sascha Boumedienne, Jack Berglund, Viggo Björck, and Anton Frondell.

Öhgren finished the game with three points as Sweden beat Switzerland 8-1. Öhgren got to move up to Sweden’s top line alongside top NHL Draft prospect Ivar Stenberg after Canucks teammate Linus Karlsson began the game on Stenberg’s line.

Sweden’s first game of the tournament comes May 15th against Canada.

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