Following their first win of the calendar year, the Vancouver Canucks held practice at Rogers Arena on Thursday morning.

The Canucks received a boost to their lineup on Wednesday night against the Washington Capitals with a healthy Teddy Blueger returning. And according to Head Coach Adam Foote, Filip Chytil could potentially return to the lineup as early as Friday night’s game against the New Jersey Devils.

“Yeah, as long as today went well, he’s going to play. So, unless they come to me and say something changed, I don’t see that happening, but you never know, right? It looks promising. We’ll know for sure in the morning, probably in the morning, but it looks good.”

Chytil, 26, has been out of the lineup since October 19 against the Capitals, after he caught a massive hit from Tom Wilson in the neutral zone at the tail end of a three-goal first period for the Canucks. In the six games he played this season, Chytil found the back of the net three times, including a pair of goals in the third period on opening night to secure a 5-1 win over the Calgary Flames.

Following Sunday’s practice, Chytil was made available to the media for the first time since the injury. He highlighted what this process was like for him, having struggled with concussion problems throughout his career, and what he had to go through mentally. Here’s a quote from Chytil from earlier this week:

“From the beginning, it was very hard because I was hopeful that I could manage to play all 82 games, but it wasn’t the case,” said Chytil when asked about the mental challenges of recovering from yet another injury. “But this is the part of the sport and I can avoid it sometimes, but yeah, sometimes it is the days like [these] the last two years [that have] been very hard for myself and for my wife, for my family especially. And yeah, I missed so many events. I missed so many games in the NHL. Now I’m gonna miss Olympics as well, so it sucks, but it is what it is.”

If all goes right at tomorrow’s pregame skate, it appears Chytil will make his return to the lineup on Friday when the Canucks welcome the Devils to Rogers Arena.