After a year of seasoning, Filip Chytil is going to start the season with the New York Rangers. Try to remember he’s 19-years-old and starting his tenth NHL game.
There is a vicious cycle of “it-kids” making it to the highest level of professional sports and burning out because of expectations. That is not to say that there should not be expectations, but they need to be developed within the proper context. Just because a player was a first round pick does not mean they will immediately jump to the league and register a 60 point season.
In the case of Filip Chytil, the New York Rangers have a great luxury. The organization as a whole has plenty of time to bring the Czech center along and get him NHL minutes against quality opposition. The team around him is in no rush to compete and is not depending on him to lead them to the promised land.
This should be as stress limited a year as possible for a young prospect. The true issue comes when a contending team brings a prospect into the fold and immediately expect him to become a cog in the machine. While playing on a winning team is an important experience in the greater development as a player, there are other things to consider.
When a team continuously fails to put its young players in a position to succeed, there is never any progress.
The past
The overall development of a prospect from amateur talent to professional talent requires the right massaging along the way. The Rangers had two consecutive coaches, Alain Vigneault and John Tortorella that were notorious for their inability to integrate young talent.
In the mind of both Tortorella and Vigneault, if a young player makes a mistake on the ice, they should be disciplined. This typically manifested itself in young guys going seven or eight minutes at a time without getting on the ice.
Think about how Pavel Buchnevich played on the fourth line with no supporting talent and was expected to still produce. The fact that Buchnevich was able to still post 20 points in 41 games as a rookie is nothing short of remarkable. The forward was put in a position to fail and not given the right situation to learn.
How can a young player learn from their mistake if they get nailed to the bench and can’t get back on the ice? Buchnevich voiced his displeasure with the tough love approach in an interview with a Russian publication back in the Spring.
"On his season, Buchnevich said that everything depends on his confidence and that it’s easier to play when he doesn’t have to fear that one mistake will cause a decrease in ice time. He said that he could play a few good games in a row, struggle in one and then find himself on the fourth line with minimal ice time."
What it means for Chytil
So, being that the Rangers have a lot invested in Chytil, it would only make sense for the organization to handle him with the future in mind. If things are not working out at the NHL level, the center should not be trying to force things. It’s obvious when a player out on the ice does not have confidence with the puck on their stick.
If Chytil is ever out on the ice and struggling to keep his head above water, the team needs to be proactive. It would make a lot of sense for the coaching staff to pair the forward with a veteran winger or two to make the jump easier. Giving Chytil someone like Mats Zuccarello to play with would be an example of how the team can put its players in a position to succeed.
Let the Rangers have fun this season. Using Chytil as a vehicle for measuring the rebuild. Being that this is the first full season, it is about understanding what the team has and what it still needs. If the forward can post north of 30 points and hang around the entire season, that would be a solid year one for a 19 year old.
Keeping the rebuild in perspective will be the important part of understanding success. The team may not win games, but if Chytil takes steps in his development and gets better over the course of the year, that would be a success.
Let the former 21st overall pick learn this year, if nothing else, it should be fun.