On the surface, there seems little to be concerned about for the New York Rangers right now.
Excitement is the prevailing emotion surrounding the 2023-24 Blueshirts, who entered a five-day break following another inspiring victory, 4-3 in a shootout over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Nov. 12, one in which they overcame a game opponent, stretches of poor play and flat-out bad officiating to improve to 11-2-1 on the season.
Sitting atop the Metropolitan Division, new coach Peter Laviolette has the Rangers on a 9-0-1 burst and looking supremely confident despite key injuries that have hardly slowed them down.
About one of those injuries, though …
For all the strong performances the Blueshirts have gotten so far, perhaps none has been more critical than that of Vincent Trocheck’s, with the veteran center off to a terrific start to the season. That’s because Trocheck has covered up for the loss of young pivot Filip Chytil, who is disconcertingly on the shelf again with a suspected concussion. The injury occurred on what looked like a harmless open-ice collision during the Rangers’ 2-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Nov. 2.
Chytil’s Concussion History Is Highly Worrisome
For Chytil, any collision threatens to be a dangerous one. Only 24, the 21st overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft has suffered numerous suspected concussions, including at least one last season, and another injury of the “upper-body” variety in the preseason that had threatened to keep him out for the season opener.
Despite an apparent breakout last season, when he recorded career highs of 22 goals and 23 assists in 74 games, Chytil’s time on Broadway has been marred by injuries. None of those are more concerning than the concussions, which an athlete can become increasingly more susceptible to as they continue to accrue them. Chytil has not started skating and the timeline for his return is unclear.
Laviolette didn’t reveal much about Chytil in his news conference the day after the win over the Blue Jackets, referring to him as day to day – such is the nature of information regarding injuries in the NHL. The lack of detail, though, still spoke volumes. It seems possible that we might not see Chytil for some time.
Though he didn’t score a goal in his 10 games this season, Chytil recorded six assists and was centering what has been the Rangers’ most dynamic line, with Artemi Panarin on his left and Alexis Lafreniere on the right. He’s posted a 58.8 Corsi for percentage and 56.1 expected goals for mark, with the Rangers generating 74 scoring chances for to 46 against with Chytil on the ice.
Trocheck, moved up to the top line when Chytil was injured, has helped keep the unit humming with his outstanding play. Chytil, though, ostensibly represents part of the Rangers’ future core. While Trocheck is locked in for another five seasons beyond this one, he’s six years older than Chytil and won’t be expected to produce at his current level deep into the seven-year contract he signed before last season.
Chytil oozes talent. He’s big and fast and skates with power and speed, and possesses a shooter’s mentality that’s well served by his potent wrist shot. He plays a premium position, and as such, the Blueshirts have been patient with him through numerous ups and downs across his seven NHL seasons. It appeared they were finally rewarded for that faith starting in the 2022 playoffs, when he delivered seven goals and two assists in 20 games, and last season, when his growth was evident in a 45-point performance that seemed to signal much more was to come.
The inability to stay on the ice, however, jeopardizes Chytil’s career – and the Rangers’ fate, both the immediate and long-term. The Blueshirts’ fast start has them squarely in the conversation of Stanley Cup contenders, but they’ll likely need Chytil’s dynamic presence to make a deep run similar to that of 2022, when the Rangers came within two games of the Stanley Cup Final.
Beyond this season, the front office’s hope has been that Chytil – signed to a four-year extension March 29 – along with forwards Lafreniere, Kaapo Kakko and perhaps rookie Will Cuylle and their young and talented defense will form the core of a future contender after veterans like Trocheck, Chris Kreider, Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad are gone.
Young power centers who can score don’t grow on trees. The Rangers understood that and were willing to live with Chytil’s growing pains in considering the potential return. That appeared to finally be imminent when injury struck again, twice, in 2023-24.
Rangers Hoping Chytil Isn’t Going Down Same Path as Sauer
The lack of detail about Chytil’s condition make it all but impossible to get an accurate read on what’s wrong. Along with Laviolette’s silence, however, the play on which he was injured appears to tell us plenty: Chytil essentially ran into former teammate Jesper Fast, an innocuous-looking encounter in which there was no blow to the head, and no obvious injury to any other part of his body. That Chytil was placed on injured reserve and hasn’t seen the ice since can’t be anything but extremely worrisome.
Will the Rangers ever be able to count on Chytil to deliver full, effective seasons? Amidst injuries to star defenseman Adam Fox, No. 1 goaltender Igor Shesterkin and now Fox’s defense partner Ryan Lindgren, it’s Chytil’s absence that’s the most unsettling.
Related: Rangers Likely in for Wild Ride Without Fox
This space has been used recently to question the signing of Trocheck as overkill. Instead, Chytil’s brittle nature and growing history of head injuries has made that pickup one of the team’s most important in recent years.
The fan base’s collective mind can’t help but wander back to the sad case of Michael Sauer, the promising young defenseman who was drafted and developed by the Rangers and played 76 games in 2010-11, only to have his career derailed the next season by the lingering effects of concussions. Sauer logged 19 games in 2011-12 before being forced to retire.
Sauer was 24, the same age Chytil is now, and he’s hardly the only player who has seen their NHL dreams dashed by repetitive head injuries. Chytil’s upside and importance to the Rangers’ future are considerably higher than Sauer’s was, but his chances to continue the climb that began two seasons ago might not be any better. The Czech Republic native has missed 51 games over the past four seasons-plus. Can he find a way to move beyond this spate of injuries – one that could end up being chronic – and establish himself as a dependable top-six scorer, which he was on the way to becoming?
It’s difficult to see the bad amongst all the good for the 2023-24 Rangers. It’s there, however. Even if quietly, it’s a safe bet that members of the organization are holding their collective breath over the health of their young center and the perhaps murky future of Chytil, on whom so many of the Blueshirts’ hopes rest over the next several years.
