Canucks: Filip Chytil eager to not let injuries prevent him from taking on a bigger role

Filip Chytil has a golden opportunity in front of him: the chance to become the Vancouver Canucks‘ regular second line centre. And as training camp has gotten underway in Penticton, he’s prepared to take that next step.

Chytil is coming off a 2024-25 where he was limited to just 56 games between Vancouver and the New York Rangers due to injuries. A hit from behind by the Blackhawks’ Jason Dickinson ended up resulting in a concussion –  one of a few head injuries in his short NHL career – finishing his season prematurely.

The 26-year-old Czech isn’t thinking about it or letting it affect his preparation for this season. In fact, he’s hoping to take on a bigger scoring role this time around, spending the offseason working on breakaways, rebound chances and deflecting shots.

“I’m just doing the things that I’m doing all the time,” Chytil told reporters on Friday. “Just coming to the rink with a smile on my face, coming early, work hard off the ice. I’m not doing anything different from previous years.”

But to say it’s completely out of mind isn’t the case. It’s no secret that concussions are hard to live with, and Chytil’s aware of that. “It’s something that I cannot even explain to my closest people what’s going on sometimes.”

But while some want him to be more careful on the ice, he intends to not let it affect the way he plays.  “Of course I understand all the people who are worried about that, but I know my body,” Chytil said. I know my head the most and what’s going on.”

“So I’m not thinking about all of this and I’m just focusing on the game. I’m focused on working with all the people around on how to stay on the ice as much as I can and play a full season finally.”

After Day 1 of camp, coach Adam Foote mentioned that getting more numbers into the rush will help prevent putting Chytil in dangerous situations more often, with fewer passes across the ice in the neutral zone. But Chytil doesn’t see his injury history as an excuse for shying away from the toughest parts of the ice, particularly along the boards and near the front of the net.

“I have to get to the dirty areas as well to get the dirty goals, those are as important as beautiful goals when you skate through the five players,” Chytil said. “I’ve got to get there and if I will score, I will help the team a lot as well to win the game.”

Chytil is hoping to build off of the success he had in the earliest parts of his Canucks’ tenure, citing the four games he played before the Four Nations Face-Off break as “probably the best hockey I played”. But once Rick Tocchet’s systems play took over, that created some confusion on his role before the concussion ended his year. The change over to Foote’s more fluid style might benefit Chytil more than any other Canuck.

“It made my head full of thoughts which I didn’t want to have. So my game I think dropped a little bit and I was trying to go through that,” Chytil said. “I think now I’m with a clear head again.”

You can watch the full Chytil scrum below!