Filip Chytil has spent enough time on the sideline lately to know he’ll take any game he can get. But if Friday goes the way it’s pointing, his return for the Vancouver Canucks will come against the one opponent that still carries some extra weight: the New York Rangers.
Chytil was back at practice with the team on Tuesday, skating alongside Paul Cotter and Jonathan Lekkerimaki, and the signs are leaning toward him re-entering the lineup Friday. He has missed five games after a shoulder injury flared up again, this time from a preseason collision with referee Riley Brace. For Chytil, though, the bigger headline is simply getting back on the ice after another stretch of frustration.
“It means a lot to me, actually,” he explained on Tuesday. “It’s been almost two years now since the trade, and I didn’t play a game against them.
I don’t know most of the team now because it’s changed as well. I know just a couple of players from there, but it was still eight years in the organization.
And it was an organization that gave me an opportunity to play in the league, and I have great memories from those seasons. It’s going to be a nice game, but the most important thing if I will play is that I will be happy that I am back.”
The matchup has been a long time coming. Chytil was acquired in January 2025 as part of the JT Miller deal, along with Victor Mancini and a first-round draft pick that later went to Pittsburgh. Since then, he has suited up in just 34 games for Vancouver across parts of three seasons, and injuries have kept him out of all four meetings between the Canucks and Rangers.
That kind of bad timing has followed him around. Chytil has played only seven games this season after appearing in just 12 last year. Head and shoulder injuries have kept interrupting his momentum, and twice he’s been knocked out just before a shot at his former club.
After the trade, he was checked from behind by Chicago’s Jason Dickenson on March 15 and suffered a season-ending head injury. One week later, Vancouver played the Rangers at Madison Square Garden without him.
Earlier this season, the Canucks were in New York on October 11 for their lone visit to MSG, while Chytil made his season debut in Florida four nights later. The chance has kept slipping away.
His most recent game came on October 29 in San Jose, when he logged a career-high 22:13. Late in that one, he took a heavy hit from Sharks defenceman Darnell Nurse.
He finished the game, but was placed on injured reserve the next day. Through this season, he has no goals and two assists.
At 5-on-5, he has been on the ice for one goal for and three against in 101 minutes, though Vancouver has been outshot 51-23 in those minutes.
Even without the scoring, Manny Malhotra has leaned on him heavily. The Canucks coach said Chytil’s pace changes the look of the lineup, especially in a center group that needs more speed.
“He’s obviously a very dynamic player that changes our lineup when he’s in,” Malhotra, himself a former first-round pick of the Rangers, said. “Points aside, he was doing a lot of really good things in terms of transporting pucks and creating looks for us.
And obviously with his speed, his ability to apply pressure up ice is a major asset. So not looking at the point totals right now, we do have to give him some grace for the amount of time he missed, especially early in the season, now getting his game legs going and feeling a part of it again.”
Vancouver practices again on Thursday, and that session should offer a clearer read on whether Chytil will be cleared. For now, Friday has the feel of a long-awaited reset: a chance to get back into a game after two weeks out, and finally face the team that drafted him in 2017.
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