Canucks' Hughes and Hronek defence pairing leads NHL in this crucial stat

Bob Frid/USA TODAY Sports

After years of experimenting, the Vancouver Canucks may have finally found the perfect partner for Quinn Hughes.

Filip Hronek, acquired midway through last season, has fit like a glove next to the captain through the team’s first six games. Together, they’ve been a large reason as to why the Canucks are off to their best start in the past four years.

There are a lot of impressive statistics that display this duo’s dominance, but none is as telling as the amount of goals they’ve permitted while on the ice together.

According to Natural Stat Trick, the Hughes/Hronek pairing is the only one across the entire NHL to have played at least 75 minutes of five-on-five together and not conceded a single goal. There are 21 other pairings that have reached that threshold and all of them have been on the ice for at least one goal against.

Rank	Player	Player 2	Team	GP	GA
1	Filip Hronek	Quinn Hughes	VAN	6	0
2	Nick Leddy	Colton Parayko	STL	5	1
3	Justin Faulk	Torey Krug	STL	5	1
4	Brayden McNabb	Shea Theodore	VGK	7	2
5	Erik Karlsson	Marcus Pettersson	PIT	6	2
6	TJ Brodie	Morgan Rielly	TOR	6	2
7	Dylan DeMelo	Josh Morrissey	WPG	6	2
8	Oliver Ekman-Larsson	Gustav Forsling	FLA	6	2
9	Henri Jokiharju	Owen Power	BUF	7	2
10	Adam Larsson	Vince Dunn	SEA	7	3
11	Ryan McDonagh	Alexandre Carrier	NSH	7	3
12	Jacob Trouba	K’Andre Miller	NYR	6	3
13	Jamie Oleksiak	William Borgen	SEA	7	3
14	Cody Ceci	Darnell Nurse	EDM	6	3
15	Jake Walman	Moritz Seider	DET	7	4
16	Mattias Samuelsson	Rasmus Dahlin	BUF	7	4
17	Kris Letang	Ryan Graves	PIT	6	4
18	Travis Sanheim	Cam York	PHI	6	5
19	Brent Burns	Jaccob Slavin	CAR	7	5
20	Drew Doughty	Mikey Anderson	L.A	6	5
21	MacKenzie Weegar	Nikita Zadorov	CGY	7	6
22	Darren Raddysh	Mikhail Sergachev	TB	7	8

There are a lot of impressive names on that list, yet it’s only the Canucks top pairing that has been perfect in defence.

The Hughes/Hronek pairing hasn’t just been playing great in their own zone, they’ve also been able to kickstart plenty of offensive attacks. They’ve been on the ice for six goals-for at five-on-five, tied for fourth best of the 22 pairings that have hit the ice-time minimum.

The stylistic fit between the two players has been great as Hronek’s two-way play has allowed Hughes to roam the ice and play to his strengths. To his credit, Hughes has also continued to prove why he’s underrated by many as he looks like an elite contributor night after night.

The Canucks have leaned on their top two defenders heavily, as Hughes (25:02) and Hronek (25:27) are in the top 10 in average ice time among all NHL players this season.

Hughes and Hronek have played almost 91 minutes together at five-on-five, well above the approximately 50 minutes that the team’s second most common pairing — Ian Cole and Tyler Myers — has seen. That’s a heavy workload but one that they’ve shown they’re capable of handling so far.

The only issue with how well the top pairing is playing is that it has left the Canucks without much depth in their defence. Because of this, it remains to be seen how long the Canucks will keep their best two defencemen together, but it’s impossible to argue against the early results.

For the first time in a decade, the Canucks have a defence pairing that can be considered among the league’s elite and it’s been a big reason for the team’s successful start.

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