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Rangers’ Filip Chytil Faces Career-Defining Season

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers | By Tom Castro | Last updated Jul 19, 2024 9:28 AM ET

Despite seven seasons in the NHL marked by a choppy development path and injuries, the New York Rangers are still holding out hope for Filip Chytil.

Only 24 years old, it seems as though Chytil has been in a Rangers sweater forever – that is, when he hasn’t been sent to the minors (twice) or dealt with a variety of injuries (numerous) that have resulted in him reaching the 70-game mark only twice. One of those times obviously wasn’t last season, when he played only 10 games before enduring a jarring step backward, as yet another suspected concussion forced him to be shut down for the rest of the regular season.

That door swings both ways. Regardless of Chytil’s age, he’s been in the NHL long enough to have come upon a highly consequential moment in his career. It seems clear that if the (still) young center isn’t able to deliver another healthy season in which his production finally starts to match his talent, there won’t be much reason to believe he’ll be anything more than what he’s been – namely, an injury-prone player whose tantalizing abilities have remained largely blocked.

Chytil Looked Outstanding in 2023-24 Before Injury Struck Again

The Rangers had to have been feeling pretty good about themselves during the 2022-23 season, when it appeared their patience with the 21st pick in the 2017 NHL Draft had finally paid off, as Chytil delivered career highs of 22 goals and 23 assists while playing in 74 games. What looked like a breakout season followed a bust-out 2022 playoff performance, in which Chytil scored seven goals in 20 games and dominated shifts with his speed, power skating and elite puck skills.

The Blueshirts saw a player finally ready to graduate into the top six, and new coach Peter Laviolette shared that opinion when he took over for the 2023-24 season, putting Chytil in the middle between Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere. The unit was outstanding for its 10 games together, recording a 57.6 expected goal share and out-chancing opponents 62-39. Though Chytil didn’t score a goal, he recorded six assists and posted a 56.1 expected goal share. The needle, pointing up since the spring of 2022, finally seemed locked in that position.

Then Chytil collided with Carolina Hurricanes forward Jesper Fast in what looked like an innocuous open-ice encounter Nov. 2, 2023, and didn’t play again in the regular season. It was his latest episode involving a suspected head injury, one that looked as if it might send him down the Michael Sauer path and into early retirement. A scary setback in late January in which he fell to the ice and stayed down for several minutes while skating during his recovery only reinforced the notion that Chytil’s career was in jeopardy, if not over.

Befitting the rollercoaster nature of his story, however, Chytil seemingly came out of nowhere to be medically cleared for the playoffs. Less than four months after laying on the ice, Chytil drew into the lineup for Game 3 of the Rangers’ second-round series against the Carolina Hurricanes, playing wing on the third line with Alex Wennberg and Kaapo Kakko. Though he recorded only one shot on goal, he looked good in 12 minutes of ice time, and that felt like a victory within in a victory as the Blueshirts won 3-2 in overtime to grab a 3-0 lead in the series.

The coaster reached the top of the tracks again and dropped in dizzying fashion, with Chytil being ruled out for Game 4 and not playing for the rest of the series. Speculation that he had suffered another head injury ran rampant; social media was abuzz in questioning the Rangers’ judgment in putting him in the lineup.

Then the cars shot back up the hill again. It turned out that Chytil was simply not in game shape after so much time off, and needed extended recovery to clear the soreness and fatigue before playing again. In a final stretch that breathed life back into the idea that the 6-foot-2, 204-pound native of the Czech Republic could yet fulfill his potential, Chytil played in five of the six games of the Rangers’ Eastern Conference Final loss to the Florida Panthers, not tallying a point but registering seven shots on goal. Perhaps even more encouraging, he hung in against the uber-physical Panthers, absorbing numerous hits and one crunching check into to the boards from huge defenseman Niko Mikkola in the waning seconds of the series opener, and came out of it no worse for the wear.

Given the wild ups and downs of Chytil’s career, that could mean everything, or it could mean nothing. Maybe Chytil gets back on the fast track he found two years ago that carried through the 2022-23 season. Or maybe he won’t, and 2024-25 will include another health-related incident that causes Chytil to spend most of the season in the press box or largely on his own, trying to rehab and make it back into the lineup.

What seems certain is the fact that whatever the case may be, the upcoming season feels like a truly defining one for Chytil. A repeat of 2023-24 would appear to cement 2022-23 as the career aberration, and probably force the people who run the organization to admit to themselves that Chytil, a somewhat surprising selection at 21 back into 2017, simply won’t ever become what they thought he would.

In such a scenario, why would anyone believe anything else? The 2022 playoffs and subsequent regular season bought Chytil a reprieve and showed his employers what he could do when healthy. Another major injury, however – especially one to the head – wouldn’t just confirm that Chytil will probably never be able to stay in the lineup; it would call into question any further attempts to put him in it at all.

Health matters. Life after hockey matters. Chytil, an earnest, well-liked player and teammate who works tirelessly at his craft, might have to be protected from himself. If he endures another injury-marred season, what place would he occupy in the team’s long-term plans?

Rangers Anxiously Hoping to Get 2022-23 Version of Chytil in 2024-25

The Rangers still have plenty riding on this. Chytil is among their few young players with high upside, and they moved to lock that up by giving him a four-year, $17.75 million contract in March 2023, in what looked like an outstanding decision at the time. Though the goal for him in 2024-25 – besides simply making it back into the lineup as a regular – will be to win the third-line center spot, his long-term deal came with the expectation that he would eventually become a mainstay in the top six, perhaps supplanting older veterans Mika Zibanejad and Vincent Trocheck. As he was hardly out of place playing on what turned out to be team’s No. 1 line last season, albeit over a small sample size, that expectation hardly appears unrealistic.

Big, talented centers are difficult to come by, to put it mildly. In addition to his ability to generate offense, Chytil has always consistently driven possession and is a sound defensive player. The Rangers would benefit tremendously from having Chytil as the anchor of a productive third forward unit – something they desperately lacked in the 2023 postseason.

Can Chytil get off the figurative amusement park thrill ride and finally put the injuries behind him? His return in the playoffs offers the latest reason for hope that he can, and 2024-25 represents another golden opportunity to prove it.

That opportunity could end up being his final one, however. The next hit Chytil takes could be his last on the ice. Even if it isn’t, the moment of truth has arrived. Chytil is either the power center whose confidence soared as his health and productivity led to a career season in 2022-23, or the 2023-24 version that couldn’t continue his climb because of yet another injury.

Chances are that it won’t take long to find out.