If only! Quinn Hughes, Filip Hronek a tease of what could've been for Detroit Red Wings

It may be tempting when the Detroit Red Wings take on their first opponent out of the break to think about what could have been.

The Vancouver Canucks — who by the time they face off against the Wings in a Saturday matinee at Little Caesars Arena will have played twice since the All-Star break — have a pair of defensemen who rank among the best in the NHL. One of them is a former Wing, and the other one is a former missed pick.

Quinn Hughes, the former Michigan Wolverine and second-best producer from the 2018 draft, and Filip Hronek, who was traded by the Wings a year ago, are a big part of why the Canucks are in position to compete for the Presidents' Trophy.

Hughes has 64 points in 50 games, ninth in the NHL scoring race and tops among defensemen. He also has a league-leading plus-34 rating. He entered the All-Star break on a seven-game point streak with a goal and 12 assists in that stretch.

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Hughes is who the Wings, then under general manager Ken Holland, passed on when they had the sixth pick in the 2018 draft. They chose Filip Zadina, and at the time, it looked like a good pick; Zadina was projected to go as high as third thanks to his shot and scoring prowess. But he never could establish that with the Wings, and last year, at his request, the team agreed to a termination of his contract. (That freed the Wings from Zadina's $1.825 million annual salary cap hit and freed up a roster spot, which helped facilitate signing Patrick Kane.)

Hughes, 24, ranks behind only forward Brady Tkachuk (fourth overall, Ottawa Senators) with 305 points to Tkachuk's 316 points among 2018 draft picks, but Hughes has a 0.92 points-per-game average that leads his draft class.

The Zadina pick looks all the worse because of Hughes, but it happens to every team, including the Canucks: In 2016 they selected Olli Juolevi at fifth overall. He's playing in Europe after his NHL career fizzled out after just 41 games (eight of those came with the Wings in 2021-22). The Canucks passed on Matthew Tkachuk, who went sixth to the Calgary Flames.

Hronek, 26, ranks 11th among league defensemen with 36 points in 50 games, and second in the league with a plus-32 rating. (He maxed out at 38 points in 78 games in a single season during his nearly five years with the Wings.) He was drafted with the second-round pick (No. 53) the Wings got as part of the return for unloading Pavel Datsyuk's contract, and emerged as a workhorse with solid offensive skills and a bite to his game, though his play sagged a bit once Moritz Seider arrived on the scene and ascended to the top of the defense depth chart.

Two days before the 2023 trade deadline, Yzerman sent Hronek to the Canucks for a first-round and a second-round pick in the 2023 draft. The first pick, at No. 17, was used on Axel Sandin Pellikka, a defenseman with offensive upside who shoots right. (The second-round pick was used as part of a trade to gain two different picks.)

At the time of the trade, Hronek was in the second of a three-year deal with a $4.4 million salary cap hit and restricted free agency upon expiry. Yzerman said at the time that, "I felt with where we're at and the return we were getting, it was a good decision for the future."

The hope is that down the road, Sandin Pellikka essentially takes over the role fulfilled by Hronek. In the immediate, the need to add offense to the back end was fulfilled in signing Shayne Gostisbehere to a one-year, $4.125 million deal; he leads all Wings defensemen with 32 points in 49 games.

Keeping Hronek might not have been fiscally feasible if the Wings had Hughes on the payroll (he's got a $7.85 million salary cap hit through 2026-27), but just imagine where the Wings would be with Seider and Hughes on the back end.

Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her @helenestjames.

Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her latest book, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” is available from  Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.

Red Wings: Canucks

Matchup: Red Wings (26-18-6) vs. Vancouver (34-11-5).

Faceoff: 1 p.m Saturday; Little Caesars Arena, Detroit.

TV/radio: Bally Sports Detroit; WXYT-FM (97.1).

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Quinn Hughes, Filip Hronek could have starred for Detroit Red Wings