NHL Draft Prospect Profile: Filip Hronek

Get to Know Filip Hronek

Date of Birth: November 2, 1997 (18)
Place of Birth: Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic
Ht: 6’0” Wt: 163 lbs
Shoots: Right
Position: Defense
Team: Hradec Kralove (Czech)

Statistics

What Scouts See
McKeen’s Hockey
“He’s smart – I like the way he reads and reacts defensively,” noted one crossover scout. “He has impressive mobility, is good 1-on-1, plays aggressively despite his size, and offers solid positioning. For me, he’s one of the draft’s wildcards – he may go a lot higher than people expect. Once he fillls out he could be a really solid blueliner, perhaps a top-four guy.”

Bill Placzek, Draftsite.com
Czech Republic defender who displayed terrific puck moving skills and instincts. runs the PP and reads and dishes well. Not big but plays well in all phases unnoticed. Plays aggressive and doesn’t really panic under pressure. Positionally solid in all three zones. Has good vision and sees his outlet options and hits them. Likes to carry with good feet and isn’t afraid of the rough going. Not six foot but an interesting prospect who will needs more weight room to get stronger in body and stride.

Nik Funa, HockeyProspect.com – The Pipeline Show
The thing that stands out for him is his energy and the pace that he plays with is pretty good. He’s not the biggest guy or defensive zone wall but he’s got a certain energy to his game that makes him look like he could maybe play at the pace of NHL down the road. [. . .] It’s not just skating that he’s good at but it’s more like an engine of his and he just keeps going. He’s not the biggest guy so in the defensive zone sometimes it’s almost a bit funny to see him go against big players because he’s got that bite to him but it’s not very effective because he’ll just bounce off guys.

Kyle Woodlief, USA Today Sports
Hronek flew under the radar this season because he’s a late-’97 birth date, so he wasn’t eligible to play in any of the under-18 tourneys on the international calendar. Plus, he’s the only Czech prospect who stayed home to play, so scouts didn’t spend much time there this year. Despite his lack of exposure, our scouts love his vision and patience with the puck. He’s got excellent hockey sense in all three zones, and terrific instincts at the offensive end, where he’s a smooth power-play quarterback.

NHL Potential
Hronek has a good head for the game and some of the tools to play at the NHL level, but to make it there he’ll need to make significant strides in his physical development and get much stronger than his current 163 lb frame allows. If Hronek and keep growing and refine some of his defensive reads he projects as a 2nd or 3rd pairing NHL defenseman.

Expected Draft Position
Filip Hronek is ranked between the late 30’s and late 80’s by various scouting services, but the majority of scouts rank him somewhere inside of the third round.

How Prospect Fits in Avalanche Organization
While the Avalanche have two very talented right-shot defenseman at the NHL level (Erik Johnson and Tyson Barrie) and one high quality prospect in that role in Nicholas Meloche, it would certainly be in the Avalanche’s interest to pick up another right-shot defenseman in the draft to start building for the future.