Ex-Rangers center out indefinitely with latest injury: ‘really bad luck’
If it wasn’t for bad luck, Filip Chytil likely wouldn’t have any luck at all. Especially when it comes to injuries for the former New York Rangers center.
Vancouver Canucks coach Adam Foote revealed Friday that Chytil is out indefinitely after sustaining a facial fracture in a freak on-ice accident two days earlier. Standing to the side of the net during a mini-scrimmage, Chytil was hit in the cheek by a deflected shot, and left the ice immediately. X-rays confirmed the fracture.
“Yeah, he’s got a fracture … I think [the puck] went off one of our defenseman’s skates, skipped up. Really some bad luck for him,” Foote explained to reporters. “It doesn’t look like surgery, but they’re seeing another specialist. So, we’re crossing our fingers and hoping it’s not.”
That the injury occurred during Vancouver’s first practice after a two-week break for the Winter Olympics sadly feels par-for-the-course for the oft-injured 26-year-old. Chytil’s already missed a huge chunk of this season due to an injury believed to be head-related, and, more recently, a migraine, before the Olympic break. His health issues cost Chytil a spot on Czechia’s roster for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics.
Foote didn’t say whether he expects Chytil to play again this season. The Canucks (18-33-6) are last in the NHL, and have 25 games remaining in a second consecutive lost season.
Chytil’s played just 12 games, including the first six of the season before a Tom Wilson open-ice hit on Oct. 19 knocked him out of the lineup for three months. After returning, Chytil played six games without recording a point, and left a Feb. 2 game against the Utah Mammoth with a migraine.
He scored two goals in Vancouver’s season opener, but has just one goal since.
Former Rangers center Filip Chytil injured again for Canucks
After the Rangers traded Chytil to the Canucks as part of the J.T. Miller deal last season on Jan. 31, 2025, he sustained a head injury believed to be a concussion less than two months later and was unable to finish the season.
Last month, Chytil shared his annoyance with media members when questioned about how mkany concussion he’s sustained during eight NHL seasons since the Rangers selected him in the first round (No. 21 overall) in the 2017 draft.
“I’d read all these things in the media or whatever about how many concussions I’d had, like eight, and it’s just not true,” Chytil said in January. “People who don’t know what I’m doing, trying to say what’s going on.
“I’m not gonna say how many concussions I had in my life, but yeah, the number, what people say on internet, is crazy. It’s just I know what kind of injuries those are. And I know what I’m going through, and my closest people here as well knows, so I’m not bothered about anything. And I just want to come back and play.”
