printable ncaa bracket What's going on with Filip Chytil? A Rangers playoff mailbag

It is playoff mailbag time, and there seems to be a fair amount of interest in a singular subject matter.

A small sampling, as follows:

When and where do you think we may see Filip Chytil?
— Christopher Scheuerman

Assuming Chytil is healthy and available, what is the most likely case for him to draw back into the lineup and where would you see him slotting in?
— Jim Moon

Will we see Filip Chytil at all in this series against Carolina, even without an injury in the current lineup?
— Michael Silvers

Welcome to the Filip Chytil Mailbag.

So other than the fact that Chytil — who materialized on the ice essentially out of nowhere on April 12 — has been cleared to practice without limitation, there has been no further information regarding the status of the Blueshirts’ 24-year-old center, who had been dealing with post-concussion issues since early November.

Chytil has practiced with the team every day since his return. Originally sidelined after taking a hit from Jesper Fast in the first period of the Nov. 2 match against Carolina at the Garden on which it is believed he suffered the fourth recorded concussion of his career, the Czech was later ruled out for at least the regular season after his initial attempt to return was cut short by an episode on the ice at the Garden on Jan. 26.

Head coach Peter Laviolette, as circumspect as they come, has never said Chytil is an option to join the lineup. We do not even know whether Chytil has medical clearance to return.

Practice, yes, we know that, but despite how intense and fast the Rangers practice — Monday’s skate following the Game 1 victory over Carolina may have been the fastest, most competitive practice I have ever seen at this time of year — it cannot even come close to matching the tempo and lurking danger of the playoffs.

Chytil is used as a spare in these practices.

He’s not necessarily in the most contentious line-vs.-line battle drills. It is no different from the way Jonny Brodzinski and Adam Edstrom are used as extra forwards.

All the speculation about a potential return is coming out of an absence of information. No one outside an inner circle within the organization knows anything or has any idea. There have been no clues dropped. It is all guesswork.

At this point, I don’t expect Chytil to return to the lineup at all. I think he’s out there skating for his mental wellness and to give him a platform off of which to enter training camp in September. I think he’s out there skating because he’s a member of the family and that’s how Laviolette families operate.

The rust factor

Chytil has not played a game in more than six months, since the kinda dozy first four weeks of the regular season to the supercharged second round of the playoffs.

Players who miss training camp generally struggle for weeks. Stepping in now after all this time off would be tantamount to Chytil jumping onto a speeding train.

It was interesting hearing Eddie Olczyk on Sunday’s Vegas-Dallas Game 7 TBS telecast talk about how both Mark Stone and Tomas Hertl were having so much trouble catching up to the pace of the game after returning following long-term absences.

Stone had missed about the past seven weeks of the regular season before returning for Game 1. Hertl had missed about 10 weeks before returning in the final week of the season.

I tend to think that if Chytil were a legitimate option, he’d have played against the Capitals, a team that would have been — and indeed was — very forgiving. That would have been the time for No. 72 to make his mistakes.

Is there any way a Chytil return now would set him up to succeed?

Who are you rushing to take out of the lineup of this team that is 5-0 in the playoffs after winning 55 games in the regular season? When Jean Ratelle returned for the 1972 Cup final against Boston after having been sidelined since March 1 due to a broken ankle, he was an ineffective fourth-line spare. When Ulf Nilsson returned for the 1979 Cup final against Montreal after having been sidelined since Feb. 25 with a broken ankle, he was an ineffective fourth-line spare.

The lineup question

Before the playoffs, it might have made some sense to consider swapping in Chytil for Jack Roslovic on the right on the line with Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad.

But, a) Roslovic has elevated his game; and b) Chytil is a center who has very little affinity for playing the wing.

You would want to make Chytil as comfortable as possible upon a hypothetical return. Chytil has played four games on the wing the past three seasons. He has played two games in his career on the right with Zibanejad and Kreider, and those were at the end of February 2020. This is the place he is going to succeed?

The third line with Alex Wennberg between Kaapo Kakko and Will Cuylle has become a quasi-checking unit that has become an important identifier on the bottom-six. Yes, you could slide in Chytil for Wennberg to create an ersatz Kid Line II, but that would change the fabric of a team that’s 5-0 and doesn’t need any changing at all.

And if you did that, Wennberg would presumably slide to the fourth line with Barclay Goodrow (who would shift from the middle to the wing) and Jimmy Vesey while Matt Rempe would take a seat.

The Rangers have won 14 straight games with No. 73 and are 19-2-1 with Rempe in the lineup, so, again, I’m good with that.

Why would I take Rempe out of the lineup? Why would I change the team dynamic?

Rempe got one shift in the third period in Sunday’s 4-3 victory over Carolina after getting one shift in the third period of the Game 4 elimination victory over the Caps. But Laviolette and the Rangers have this. No one becomes overburdened because of Rempe’s 6:50 average ice time. Seven forwards got between Alexis Lafreniere’s 11:33 and Kreider’s 15:25 in Game 1.

Again: It is all working for the Rangers. If Chytil plays, the focus shifts. It becomes about Chytil. Who comes out, what are the lines, what’s going to happen the first time he gets hit?

I do not expect to see Chytil this year.