Spirit select Red Wings draftee Filip Hronek in CHL Import Draft

By @MichaelCaples –

Another CHL Import Draft, another Red Wings defensive prospect selected by a Michigan-based OHL franchise.

A year after the Flint Firebirds selected Detroit prospect Vili Saarijarvi, the Saginaw Spirit have dipped into the Hockeytown talent pool, claiming recently-drafted defenseman Filip Hronek.

Saginaw used the No. 14 selection in the 2016 CHL Import Draft to claim Hronek, the latter of the Red Wings’ second-round picks in the 2016 NHL Draft. Hronek, selected No. 53 overall (the draft pick acquired in the trade with Arizona to unload Pavel Datsyuk’s contract), hails from the Czech Republic.

“Filip Hronek is a player that makes the Saginaw Spirit a better hockey team moving forward,” said Saginaw GM Dave Drinkill in a release. “Hronek has high end skill and is a right shot, puck-moving defenseman that will help our power play and generate offense from our backend.

“He is a second round pick of the Detroit Red Wings and now will be able to play down the road where they (Detroit) can watch him develop as the season goes on.”

A team selecting a player in the CHL Import Draft does not guarantee the player’s arrival on North-American soil for the upcoming season, but by using a first-round pick, it is assumed that the CHL team has spoken with the player’s management group and they believe the player will commit.

Detroit will certainly be keeping a close eye on Hronek’s development. Check out the quotes about their new Czech-born blueliner from Hakan Andersson, via the Red Wings’ official site:

“Everybody in the organization liked him. He’s 6-feet, very competitive and we think he has really good character, like almost – it’s stupid to say it – but almost like a captain character. Really more than what you normally see in European players.

“We like him hockey player-wise because he competes in his own end and he’s good with the puck offensively. He was on that top-30 list for the first round and then we got him in the second round. Everybody says it, but we got him lower than we had him ranked.”