Nearly a year after the Red Wings traded him to Vancouver, Filip Hronek returns to Detroit Saturday as a core part of the Canucks. But the Red Wings are still gaining from

It’s hard not to see Filip Hronek’s success this season and imagine it happening in Detroit.

Since the Red Wings traded him to Vancouver last March, Hronek has taken off in a top role for the Canucks. Playing alongside Quinn Hughes on the top pair, the 26-year-old Czech defenseman is off to the best season of his career with 36 points in 51 games on a team tied for first in the NHL. If Detroit hadn't traded him, perhaps he could have experienced that success in Detroit had it not moved him.

“They've done really well. With Fil playing with Quinn Hughes, it's a great pair for him,” Dylan Larkin said Friday. "Offensively that team is really good, so we're gonna have to watch out for them tomorrow. I don't get to watch too much of them with the games being  so late but you watch the scores, and I'm happy for both of them."

Don’t be taken aback by sticker shock at what the Red Wings might’ve missed out on. As well as Hronek has played for the Canucks this season, Detroit didn’t move him for immediate success. It traded him to stock the cupboard for the long run, which netted blue chip prospect Axel Sandin Pellikka. Both teams received meaningful additions from the trade that fit their needs.

As much as we can try to assess the value of the trade, it’s still far too early to judge who “won” the trade, although each team got assets they’re happy with. Vancouver picked up Hronek and drafted forward Ty Mueller with the accompanying fourth-round pick. Meanwhile, Detroit drafted Sandin Pellikka, a Swedish right-handed defenseman with a knack for scoring. Later on, the Red Wings traded back an accompanying second-rounder and wound up picking left-handed defenseman Brady Cleveland and forward Kevin Bicker.

Right now, it seems as though Sandin Pellikka could be a star in the making. He has scored nine goals and 13 points across 27 games for Skellefteå AIK in the Swedish league, moving him in range of records set by the likes of Erik Karlsson and Victor Hedman as U-19 defensemen. When he joins the Red Wings down the line, they’re likely to find all the scoring Hronek provided and more.

While Sandin Pellikka is likely at least a couple years from even making it to the NHL, such a dynamic player is hard to come by. As long as Sandin Pellikka lives up to the hype, the Red Wings could wind up with an elite defenseman for the price of Hronek and a little patience. It’s a distant upgrade, but a significant one.

Not only does Sandin Pellikka project to add scoring from the back end, but that production should come cheap. He’ll be on his entry level contract when the likes of Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond fetch expensive contract extensions this offseason — a contract crunch that pending UFA Hronek would've added to. Put it this way: Sandin Pellikka will be pain medicine for their cap hit during a time when the Red Wings’ prospects have reached maturation. The immediate loss might sting, but the delayed gratification should soothe it.

To be fair, Hronek would be an obvious upgrade for the Red Wings' blue line.  But success to his current level couldn’t really be expected of Hronek in such a position. With Vancouver, he’s playing alongside one of the best defensemen in the league in Hughes (who, I’m obligated to note, could’ve been a Red Wing in the 2018 NHL Draft when Detroit picked Filip Zadina). Hronek wasn’t going to find that support out of Ben Chiarot or Shayne Gostisbehere. Hronek’s success would not be a one-for-one translation between teams based on the opportunities Detroit could have afforded him.

But regardless of all the hypotheticals, the fact of the matter is that the Hronek trade pushes the needle for Detroit down the line. The situation likens itself to that of Tyler Bertuzzi, the fan-favorite winger who Detroit traded to Boston a day after the Hronek trade. The move gave the Red Wings a first-rounder in this year’s draft and a fourth in 2025, again stacking assets for the future. While Detroit would benefit from Bertuzzi’s role as an agitator teams loathe to face, those assets project to make the Red Wings a better team down the line when they’re more complete. That was Detroit's mindset at last season's deadline.

“If I thought that this group had a chance to … not just make (the playoffs) but really go on a run, maybe you keep your team together,” Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman said last March. “If I thought we were a Stanley Cup contender, I would not have traded our unrestricted free agents. I would have continued to play it out and say, ‘We’re making a run and whatever happens, happens.’ But we’re not at that point yet.”

Hronek's situation is different from that of Bertuzzi given that he was signed through this season when Detroit traded him, but it reflects the same sentiment with a slightly different time frame. Detroit might be knocking on the door of its first playoff appearance since 2016 right now, but it’s not interested in simply making the playoffs. It wants to win once it gets there, and the Hronek trade will help them do that for a long time at the cost of some immediate success.

Just because Hronek is thriving for the Canucks doesn’t mean the Red Wings should have kept him on the team. As cliche as it sounds, this looks like a trade that has clearly benefited both teams nearly a year later, and its impact will likely be felt down the line, too.

So when he skates around Little Caesars Arena on Saturday for the first time since the trade, don’t mourn what could’ve been if Detroit kept Hronek around. Instead, think of what’s to come down the line.

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