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Will Filip Chytil be the Canucks’ second-line centre on opening night?: Canucks Conversation
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Photo credit: © Bob Frid-Imagn Images
Clarke Corsan
Sep 3, 2025, 11:00 EDTUpdated: Sep 3, 2025, 10:43 EDT
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On today’s episode of Canucks Conversation, David Quadrelli and Harman Dayal discussed whether Filip Chytil is ready to step into the Vancouver Canucks’ second-line centre role and how management should approach the rest of the offseason.
Quads cautioned against assuming the Canucks can simply wait until the trade deadline to address their lineup.
“People are starting to get ahead of themselves thinking ‘you can just make the deadline acquisition,’” Quads said. “Because this is an important season and you can’t afford a super slow start to where you’re out of it by December. You can’t end up there. You have to be better, and right now they’re not. On paper, they’re a fringe team if things go right, and adding a guy like Roslovic to the mix helps the team.”
Harm, however, pushed back on the idea that Jack Roslovic – or another similar free agent – would meaningfully change the Canucks’ fortunes.
“Maybe,” Harm said. “When the Joshua trade first happened, I was on board with the idea of signing Roslovic, and if it’s cheap enough, I wouldn’t mind it. But the more I think about it, the more I warm up to the idea of seeing what happens with this current group, because how much is Roslovic going to move the needle even at the 3C position? If you have Pettersson, Chytil, and Roslovic down the middle, the concern there would be, do you have a guy that Adam Foote would look at and trust to play hard defensive matchups?”
Harm pointed out that Teddy Blueger is ideally suited to be the team’s fourth-line centre, not the defensive anchor for a middle-six trio.
“Pettersson has a responsible two-way game, Chytil isn’t bad defensively, but physically between them and Roslovic, it’s three pretty slight guys that don’t have much of a physical game,” Harm explained. “Sure, Pettersson is great defensively, but you don’t want to start feeding him a ton of defensive zone starts because they need him to put up offence. You’ve got an offensively inclined 2C right now in Chytil. How much is Roslovic going to be an upgrade after that? He would be offensively, but there could be a tradeoff defensively.”
Another factor in the discussion is faceoff ability, something the Canucks have lost since moving on from J.T. Miller and Bo Horvat.
“I’m curious to see what version of Aatu Raty they get as well because he’s by far going to be their best faceoff man, and that’s another part of the conversation,” Harm said. “Chytil is a below-average faceoff guy. We know over the last few seasons this team has lost their best guys on the draw, so it’s something to monitor, and it’s why I’m leaning more towards the idea of them keeping their cap space and powder dry, assessing if this team is even worth investing in, and go from there.”
Harm also stressed that the Canucks shouldn’t tunnel vision on finding a centre if the right opportunity isn’t there.
“As much as we focus on getting a centre, we need to be careful not to tunnel vision that it needs to be a centre,” Harm said. “This team needs an elite forward period, whether it’s at centre or on the wing. That’s this team’s biggest weakness when you compare them to the big dogs in the Western Conference. I look at this roster and even if you assume Pettersson will bounce back and be a point-per-game centreman, you’re not going very deep in the playoffs if Brock Boeser or Jake DeBrusk is your best winger. Keep the powder dry, go out and get the best forward you can mid-season if this team starts off strong and proves they’re worth investing in.”
As for Chytil himself, Harm thinks he’s capable of holding down the 2C role, at least to start the season, provided he can stay healthy.
“With Chytil, the biggest question mark is health. The way he profiles to me, on a good team, is a high-end third line centre,” Harm explained. “We know this because when the Rangers made one of their runs to the conference final, he was on the ‘kid line’ with Lafrenière and Kakko, he had seven goals in 20 games playing on the third line without much power play time and was outstanding for them. So we know he can be a high-end 3C on a contending team or a low-end 2C.”
Harm pointed out that even before his concussion issues, Chytil showed he could produce in a top-six role.
“Even last season, he began the year before he got hurt as arguably the Rangers’ best centreman,” Harm said. “If he’s healthy, he can be an acceptable low-end 2C and you’re not panicking if he’s in that spot. If you can deliver 45 points over 82 games, you’re a low-end 2C and Chytil has that on his resume. Even the last two years when he’s been hurt, he’s on a half point-per-game pace. He’s been in that 40–45 point range playing 15 minutes a night, if you increase his usage I think he can reliably give you 45, maybe 50 if he breaks out.”
“The numbers weren’t great last season,” Harm concluded, “but we all saw him play and how dangerous he was, creating offence with shots and chances. I think you’re fine starting the season with him as your 2C, it’s more about what happens at the 1C and 3C spot for me.”
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