Welcome back to another Vancouver Canucks 2024–25 report card. In this series, The Hockey News - Canucks site dives into the individual seasons of each current Canuck who played more than 10 games with the club in the 2024–25 season. Today, we’ll be taking a look at how Filip Chytil’s first few games with the Canucks went.
When the 2024–25 season began, there weren’t many people — if any — who could have seen the season ending the way it did. However, incidents throughout the year and trades that came as a result of them completely changed the Canucks’ roster. Chytil ended up on the team after the blockbuster J.T. Miller trade that also saw New York Rangers teammate Victor Mancini join the Canucks organization.
As a speedy middle-six center, many weren’t sure how to feel about Chytil’s acquisition, especially given his concerning injury history. In his first 41 games of the season with the Rangers, Chytil tallied 11 goals and nine assists — not bad for someone who dealt with two upper-body injuries throughout the season before January 31. He also posted 89 shots in this span of time, averaging around 2.17 per game.
In his first game with the Canucks, Chytil impressed fans with his speed and offensive-zone rushes. While the team ultimately didn’t win Chytil’s Canucks debut, the forward still scored an exciting goal that had the fans on their feet. He had three points in his first four games as a Canuck, and finished the season with two goals and four assists in 15 games played.
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While Chytil showed some solid skills in his first 15 games with Vancouver, his season was cut short after he was hit into the boards by former Canuck Jason Dickinson. In this game, a March 15 matchup against the Chicago Blackhawks, Dickinson threw a dirty hit that landed Chytil in the boards, resulting in the Canucks center having to leave the game. As the season progressed without Chytil, news broke that the forward was, in fact, dealing with concussion symptoms as a result of this play. This marked what could possibly be the fifth concussion that Chytil has received throughout his career.
Acquiring Chytil was a risk for the Canucks. The center has yet to play in a full regular season and has a track record of injury-riddled seasons. With that being said, in the first 15 games of his Canucks career, he showed flashes of being a good second-line center who can contribute speed and offence to a thin Vancouver center pool. With a near brand-new coaching staff coming in, time will tell whether speed remains a part of Chytil’s offensive arsenal, or whether he develops into a different kind of center that the Canucks can deploy in more defensive situations. For now, his 2024–25 season receives a solid B.
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