Vancouver Canucks forward's latest injury scare reignites retirement talk

Filip Chytil's brutal run of bad luck struck again Thursday night in Vancouver.

The Canucks center left the preseason game against the Edmonton Oilers in the first period after his skates tangled with referee Riley Brace behind the net, sending him crashing shoulder first into the boards.

The video is hard to watch.

Chytil stayed on the bench for a few minutes before heading down the tunnel with a trainer and did not return for the second period.

He finished the night with just under five minutes of ice time.

Given Chytil's long list of head injuries, the fear in the building was obvious the moment he went down.

Canucks head coach Manny Malhotra tried to ease those worries afterward, saying the staff believed Chytil came down on his shoulder rather than his head.

He added the team would know more the next day and called it unfortunate for a player who has already been through so much.

On Friday, general manager Ryan Johnson confirmed the diagnosis wasn't a concussion.

He described the injury as a muscular shoulder strain and placed Chytil on injured reserve, retroactive to September 24.

Johnson said Chytil is considered week to week and was in good spirits at practice.

Still, the collision reopened a conversation that has followed Chytil for years.

He has suffered five documented concussions in his career, including a scary hit last season that kept him out for months, and a facial fracture from a deflected puck that ended his year early.

He played just 12 games total in 2025-26.

The latest scare pushed at least one fan to say what plenty of others were thinking online.

Chytil, acquired by Vancouver in the trade that sent J.T. Miller back to New York, has shown flashes of the speed and skill that made him a first round pick when healthy.

We wish him the very best in his recovery.

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