Filip Chytil’s latest run with the Vancouver Canucks has hit another wall.
The Canucks put the former Rangers center on injured reserve Friday after he re-aggravated a shoulder problem that had already kept him out to start the season. The injury came late in Thursday’s 3-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks, when Chytil was checked hard by Sharks defenseman Darnell Nurse with about four minutes left. He stayed down for a bit, but he finished the game.
Ironically, that was one of Chytil’s heaviest workloads of the season. He skated a season-high 22:13 and took 26 shifts against San Jose.
It was the third time in four games he topped 20 minutes, and he’s done that in five of seven games this season. Through it all, the 27-year-old has averaged a career-best 19:53 of ice time, but the production hasn’t followed: no goals and just two assists for a Canucks team that sits at the bottom of the NHL standings at 3-11-1.
This latest setback also wipes away the momentum he seemed to be building after missing the first eight games of the season with the shoulder injury he suffered in his preseason debut in September. In that strange sequence, a referee collided with Chytil and sent the Rangers’ 2017 first-round pick into the boards.
Since the Rangers traded Chytil to Vancouver on Jan. 31, 2025 as part of the deal to land J.T. Miller, injuries have kept following him. He hasn’t been able to finish either of the last two seasons, and head injuries have been the biggest issue.
Last season, Chytil appeared in only 12 games for the Canucks and scored three goals.
His injury history stretches back to his time in New York, too. The most glaring example came in 2023-24, when he played only 10 regular-season games during the Rangers’ Presidents’ Trophy season. His healthiest and most productive year came the season before that, when he put up 22 goals, 23 assists and 45 points in 74 games with the Rangers.
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