Rangers receiving major boost of production, optimism from healthy Filip Chytil
Amid this disastrous New York Rangers season that has prompted organization-wide soul-searching, there are nonetheless significant bright spots that appear to bode well for their near future.
None of those looms larger than Filip Chytil, the 25-year-old center whose rocky, often-discouraging NHL journey has been trending upward again.
Apparently healthy (big knock on wood) and playing without fear of the head injuries that threatened to derail his career, Chytil is looking like a future No. 1 pivot since the holiday break, scoring four goals with one assist in a four-game point streak. He scored twice in New York’s 6-2 win over the woeful Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday, posted a plus-2 rating in 14 aggressive, hard-edged minutes, when his size, speed and skill were often too much for the overmatched Hawks.
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Filip Chytil ‘real positive influence’ on Rangers lineup
Chytil posted a 67.3 expected goal share in the five games since the NHL holiday break; and his line with Will Cuylle and rookie Brett Berard has registered a 64.4 mark during that span, per Natural Stat Trick. The fast, physical, north-south forward unit has been exactly what the Blueshirts so desperately need going forward, with Chytil’s four goals leading the way and Berard scoring a goal and recording three assists in those contests.
“He was good again,” coach Peter Laviolette said of Chytil after the victory in Chicago. “His line was good. Real positive influence in the game. I thought he played a real good game.”
The Rangers are a different team when Chytil, who has 10 goals and seven assists to go with a team-best plus-8 rating in 32 games, is in the lineup. Chytil dodged another serious head injury when he collided with teammate K’Andre Miller in a 3-2 win against the San Jose Sharks on Nov. 14, though he still missed seven games He struggled in his lineup return but now is once more exhibiting signs that he just might become the consistent top-six force the Rangers thought they were stealing with the No. 21 overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft.
Chytil is rejuvenated this season after his latest suspected concussion cost him all but 10 games of the 2023-24 season. That included a frightening setback last January. But Chytil’s said he never doubted he’d be back playing in the NHL.
His determination to make it back to the lineup in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, when he played six rusty games and didn’t record a point but absorbed several hard hits and came out fine, and his bull-in-a-china-shop approach this season, make it clear that Chytil appreciates every shift he gets now.
Though the Rangers certainly don’t want him to lose that mindset, team and player are hoping Chytil is following the path of Sidney Crosby. The Pittsburgh Penguins superstar struggled with head injuries several seasons into his surefire Hall of Fame career, missing a year and a half because of concussion issues in his early 20s – a similar age to Chytil. Crosby overcame them with the help of Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher, who has also been treating Chytil and whose Henry Ford Kutcher Clinic in Michigan is considered the go-to for NHL players dealing with brain injuries.
“It’s important to have that specialist you can trust,” Chytil said.
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Rangers look to Filip Chytil to be part of next core
A healthy, productive Chytil is hardly a luxury for the Rangers. Some of their veteran core is apparently fading or disengaged during an ugly season, when mistrust and acrimony between players and front office have played a big role in the steep descent from Presidents Trophy winners last season to a possible playoff-less 2024-25. The Blueshirts need to be able to focus on some positives.
A still rising center, who has been among his team’s best players all season and signed for two more years beyond this one at a bargain salary-cap hit of $4.4 million, certainly qualifies as one. Fellow 20-somethings Cuylle and Berard also fit the bill. Each plays a style that the Rangers must start to finally embrace if they want to change their culture from a high-skill but lacking-in-will persona, into one willing to get dirty for their goals.
That’s just what Chytil did against Chicago on both of his goals. He found space between the dots to put home a one-timer early in the second period, and then set up his 6-foot-2, 204-pound frame in front of the goal and got a fortunate bounce off his backside for the Rangers final marker midway through the third.
Fans, teammates, coaches and the front office will probably always hold their collective breath when Chytil takes a hit. His penchant for carrying the puck through the middle of the ice with speed makes him a target for opponents hunting for open-ice checks, and Chytil is sure to be on the receiving end of more of them.
His reaction to such hits since coming back in the 2024 postseason, however, has been encouraging (again, knock on wood). With the way Chytil is performing now – and the likelihood that more major changes are coming to the roster – the Rangers can allow themselves some optimism that this season might not be totally lost, and can possibly foresee a future that includes the uber-talented former first-round pick as a pillar of it.
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