Rangers' Filip Chytil back in New York, source says
Filip Chytil #72 of the Rangers battles for position during the first period against Jalen Chatfield #5 of the Carolina Hurricanes at Madison Square Garden on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023. Credit: Jim McIsaac
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Injured Rangers center Filip Chytil, who has spent the last three-plus weeks home in the Czech Republic trying to recover from what is believed to be a concussion, returned to New York on Monday, a league source confirmed. The news was first broken by ESPN.
Chytil, 24, started the season as the Rangers’ second-line center, playing between wingers Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere, before he was forced to leave the Nov. 2 game against Carolina after an inadvertent collision with former teammate Jesper Fast.
Chytil, who is believed to have suffered several concussions (the NHL does not identify injuries other than to call them upper-body or lower-body injuries), initially was placed on regular injured reserve, meaning he would miss a minimum of a week. He began skating on his own in mid-November but never progressed to the point that he could rejoin the team for practice. On Nov. 28, after forward Kaapo Kakko was injured, Kakko and Chytil were placed on long-term injured reserve.
The Rangers eventually decided to allow Chytil to return home after Christmas in the hopes that working in familiar surroundings with his physicians and trainers would help him make progress he didn’t seem to be making in New York.
Chytil recently posted a photo of himself on Instagram in his Rangers practice gear, on ice, posing between former Ranger Jaromir Jagr and former NHL player Radek Duda, who now is a skills coach. That seemed to be a positive sign that things were going well in his rehab.
The Rangers clearly have missed Chytil, who has been out for 36 games.
When Chytil was first injured, Vincent Trocheck moved up from the third line to take his spot between Panarin and Lafreniere, and that line has been one of the best in the NHL. Trocheck, who has the third-highest faceoff winning percentage in the NHL (.620) and is tied for second on the Rangers in scoring with 44 points, was named by the NHL on Monday as an injury replacement for Chicago’s Connor Bedard for its All-Star Weekend Feb. 1-3 in Toronto.
But while Trocheck has thrived in Chytil’s spot,the Rangers have been unable to get much production out of their third-line center position. Nick Bonino, who started the season as the fourth-line center, played on the third line until last week, when coach Peter Laviolette moved Jonny Brodzinski into the spot.
Chytil, the second of two first-round picks by the Rangers in the 2017 draft, had a career-best 22 goals and 45 points last season and signed a four-year, $17.75 million contract extension last March that kicked in at the start of this season. He played 10 games before getting injured and had no goals and six assists.
The Rangers have three games remaining before the All-Star break, beginning with Tuesday’s visit to San Jose. If Chytil can return to the lineup after the break, he would not only fill a hole at third-line center but might be able to help Kakko, his former linemate on the Kid Line.
Kakko has not been able to establish himself as a top-line right wing for the Rangers, and coach Peter Laviolette could play Kakko with Chytil and rookie Will Cuylle on what could be a strong third line.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
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