The Canucks Still Have to Figure Out Filip Chytil

I find it interesting that Manny Malhotra still doesn’t know where Filip Chytil will play. Not because the Vancouver Canucks don't know what Chytil can do. They obviously do. Malhotra has already talked about the 27-year-old's combination of size and speed. Those are pretty useful ingredients for a hockey player.

But where those ingredients fit is apparently still up for discussion.

Chytil’s role remains up in the air for the Canucks.

Malhotra said Wednesday that Chytil's role will be determined during training camp and the preseason. He could play centre. He could play the wing. For a player who missed most of last season because of upper-body and facial injuries, that seems pretty reasonable.

Chytil appeared in just 12 games in 2025-26, recording three goals while averaging 15 minutes a night. That's not much of a sample to build a season on. And maybe that's the more interesting part of this story. Training camp isn't always about deciding who belongs on the roster. Sometimes it's about figuring out what you actually have once everybody is healthy.

Chytil is a good example. The Canucks acquired him because he has NHL experience, size and strong skating ability to create problems for opponents. But those qualities don't automatically tell a coach where he belongs in the lineup.

When he’s healthy, Chytil can give the Canucks something. But where?

Centre is a different job from wing. They have different responsibilities, different reads, and different demands. If Chytil can handle the middle effectively, that gives Malhotra another option there. If the better version of Chytil turns out to be a winger, then the Canucks have another sizeable, fast player who can attack from the outside.

The important thing is that Vancouver doesn't appear to be forcing the answer before it has seen the player. That's what training camp is for. Hockey teams sometimes tend to take the previous season's depth chart, add the new players, and start pencilling everybody into boxes.

But new seasons don't work that neatly.

A lot is in play for Chytil and the Canucks.

Players get healthy. Young players improve. Veterans change roles. Coaches discover combinations that weren't obvious in July. Chytil may turn out to be a centre. He may turn out to be a winger. He may even move between the two depending on the situation. For the Canucks, the useful thing isn't having that answer today.

It's having enough flexibility to discover the right answer when the games begin. And after missing most of last season, getting a healthy Filip Chytil into camp may matter more than deciding exactly where to write his name on the lineup sheet.