Filip Chytil has struggled through numerous head injuries throughout his nine-year NHL career. He’s never played more than 75 games in a season, and made just 27 appearances in a Canucks sweater since the late January trade to Vancouver in 2025.

In 2025-26, Chytil started hot, scoring two goals on opening night against the Calgary Flames. He appeared poised for the new second-line centre role that he was thrust into at the beginning of last season. However, in Game 6 of the season, the Czech forward received an open-ice hit from Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson, which left him down on the ice.

He was diagnosed with a head injury and would miss the next three months of game action before returning against the New Jersey Devils in late January. Chytil played six games before the Olympic break, but would not make another appearance after taking a deflected Brock Boeser shot off the face in practice over the break.

During that second six-game stint last season, then head coach Adam Foote experimented with Chytil’s deployment. In the first three games, Chytil was averaging 16:34 minutes of ice time. However, to the eye, Chytil just didn’t look right. So, Foote put him on David Kämpf’s wing with Linus Karlsson for the next three games. But, to little surprise, that didn’t seem to improve his game, either. Chytil saw his minutes cut in half from around 14 minutes, down to seven in his final game of the year, and did not suit up in the last game before the break.

While that three-game experiment on the wing wasn’t great for Chytil, it’s hard to really blame him. He was clearly still struggling to find his game after the lengthy injury absence, all the while trying to learn how to play a new position on the wing. If he is placed on the wing to start next season, he likely performs much better, especially if he has all training camp and preseason to iron out the kinks of playing a new position.

But is that the best strategy to get the most out of Chytil while also protecting him and his health?

As mentioned, Chytil has struggled with head injuries throughout his career. Is playing him on the wing, where he has to play along the boards much more frequently, really the best place to keep him out of danger? Obviously, if a player is on the ice, he is expected to go into the dirty areas and battle for those loose pucks. However, this would be a new position for him. He hasn’t developed the reps that will best allow him to protect himself in that position.

Chytil’s probably best suited as far from the boards as possible. We understand that he got hurt playing down the middle with an open ice hit, but that is far less common than heavy hits along the boards.

Now, let’s just look at the Canucks’ depth chart. Down the middle, they only have Elias Pettersson, Marco Rossi, and Aatu Räty as other NHL centremen on the roster. Of course, there’s always the possibility that Braeden Cootes has another great training camp/preseason and plays his way onto the NHL club. However, if the organization deems the AHL the best route for Cootes’ development, Chytil will be their only other option.

Max Sasson could play there as well, but as we saw last season, he may be better suited on the wing at the NHL level. And we aren’t so sure a bottom-six centre depth of Räty and Sasson will be able to hold their own defensively.

We’ll see where he lines up come mid-September when everybody gets together again for Canucks training camp in Penticton.

What do you think, Canucks fans? Where do you think Chytil should play next season, at centre or on the wing? Let us know in the comments below!

Never miss what matters in the game. From lineup changes to breaking trades and must-read analysis, CanucksArmy delivers the insight serious hockey fans rely on—straight to your inbox. Sign up for the CanucksArmy newsletter here!