We see very different views of whether this is a good or bad deal for the Canucks and there is good reason for those divergent views.
All those people who point out that Hronek isn't physical, didn't have a good run in the playoffs, had better numbers and looked better than he would have playing with a normally good d-man instead of Hughes, that he's really only got one season as successful as this contract season and that he fell off as the season progressed are making reasonable points. His scoring had gotten pretty good in Detroit as well but his pairing this season was often dominant, resulting in really excellent numbers-his team's share of goals and shots this season while he was on the ice was elite, whatever the reason for those numbers was.
On the other hand, those that are saying it is a fair deal or maybe good for the Canucks have reason to say what they do as well. Hronek was eligible for arbitration. Teams are limited under the Collective Bargaining Agreement as to what they can raise in arbitration and it is mostly numbers, those numbers that were so incredibly good for Hronek this season. In arbitration he would have gotten one year and it would have been for more than $7.25 million. Seravalli wasn't crazy in saying it would start with an 8-his numbers made for an excellent arbitration case for Hronek and I think he'd have easily gotten over that in arbitration. I'm saying that as a Vancouver fan who was dreading the arbitration award as my view of Hronek's level of play is that it is lower than what he's about to be paid.
One other point is that while we can pretty much guess what would have happened in arbitration, we really have no idea what Hronek could have gotten as an unrestricted free agent a year from now. If his 2024-25 season turned out as good as his 2023-24 season he'd get more than he just signed for. If he has a somewhat down season-say scoring 35 pts, not far off even in +/-, CF% or FF%, then he'd get less. We can guess at the future but if we could actually predict it than all those Canuck fans who were excited about the Canucks' big signing in the summer of 2016 wouldn't have been so bitterly disappointed when Ericksson failed to look anything like the player he'd been in 2015-16. Those who are high on Hronek will expect continued success, those who are less high will expect something similar to his numbers as a Red Wing.
We'll know in eight years how this signing worked out for the Canucks and probably have a pretty good idea in five. The only thing I know for certain is that if hfb still exists and the NHL plays a season this coming year, there will be people in the early portion of the first of the eight year deal pointing out how good or bad it was based on a few good or bad games.