Filip Chytil is back on the ice with the Vancouver Canucks, saying he finally feels ready for 2026-27.
He played just 12 games last season, managing 3 goals and 3 points before injuries shut his year down early.
That's not a bad slump. That's a season that basically never got a chance to start.
Chytil said he saw multiple specialists this offseason, working on both his body and his mental approach to the game.
"It's been a tough two years in a row for me," Chytil said. "I had so much time to focus on certain things off and on the ice."
He was hit in open ice by Tom Wilson early last season, an incident that held him out until game 52.
He returned for six games, then was struck in the face by a puck during practice and never played again that season.
Why Vancouver still has to treat this cautiously
Chytil carries a $4,437,500 cap hit for a team that finished dead last in the league at 25-49-8.
That's real money tied up in a player who has now missed the majority of two straight seasons.
His own words on recovery sound careful, not triumphant. He's measuring progress in daily steps, not headlines.
"It depends on every practice," Chytil said. "I'm stepping up the stairs. I'm passing one after every day."
That's not the language of a player promising a bounce-back season. It's the language of someone managing real risk.
New head coach Manny Malhotra inherits this exact situation, a skilled center who can't simply be penciled into a lineup spot yet.
Vancouver's rebuild already leans on unresolved health questions elsewhere in net and on the back end. Chytil adds another one up front.
Is that fair to expect from a 26-year-old who has already fought through repeated head trauma? Not really. But rosters don't wait for fairness.
Training camp opens in Penticton in just over two weeks, and Chytil will need real contact reps to prove any of this translates.
Vancouver doesn't need him to be the player from his best healthy seasons. It just needs to know if he can be a full-time NHL center again.
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Can the Canucks actually count on a healthy, full-time Filip Chytil this season?
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