Rangers are trying everything to get Filip Chytil more ice time

In the Rangers’ estimation, Filip Chytil is a forward who belongs in the top nine, if not the top six. It just so happened that with the emergence of Brett Howden, they couldn’t find those types of minutes for Chytil while he was still playing center.

So it seems like first-year coach David Quinn is going to be moving the 19-year-old Chytil to the left wing, starting with Tuesday’s Garden match against the Avalanche. After Quinn declared, “I’ve got to get him more ice time” following the 2-1 loss to the Oilers on Saturday afternoon — which dropped the nascent Blueshirts to 1-4-0 — this was the first solution to that problem.

“As we all know, playing center in this league is an awful lot of responsibility,” Quinn said after Monday’s practice in Westchester. “All the great players play center.”

Turns out that Chytil has some experience on the wing, which includes time there playing for his native Czech Republic in the World Championships last spring, along with a handful of other times on the national team and in the Czech league. For Monday’s practice, Quinn had Chytil with center Kevin Hayes and Mats Zuccarello on the right, three players who are all known for their playmaking and passing abilities.

“I think it’s tough to play in ‘D’ zone at my age,” Chytil said. “I think centers in the NHL are the best players in the league. I think maybe it’ll help me more in some playmaking, some good passes. I play with Zucc and Hayesy, and they are great players. I think I can create or they can create some good chances.”

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It had been difficult for Chytil to consistently create chances while he was centering a line mostly of Vlad Namestnikov and Vinni Lettieri. He has no goals and two assists through the first five games, and got a season-high 17:18 of ice time in the second game of the year, in Buffalo. But in the three games since, he has not collected more than the 11:06 he got in the lone victory, a 3-2 overtime win against the Sharks on Thursday.

“Of course, I think it’s tough to play if you have three, four shifts in a period,” Chytil said. “I think everyone feels much better with more shifts and more ice time.”

Since the Rangers took Chytli with the No. 21-overall pick in the 2017 draft, he has dazzled with his skill. It happened right away when he made the team out of his first training camp last year. But he then looked overwhelmed in his first two NHL games, getting sent down to spend most of the season with AHL Hartford before a late-season, seven-game cameo that kept the first year of his entry-level contract from burning off.

Yet after he spent all but two weeks of the summer in the New York area, training and assimilating to the culture, he returned a bit of a different player. He is stronger and more confident, and it shows both on the ice and in the locker room.

“I’m one year older, I have a little more experience,” Chytil said. “Last year was a little different. Everything was new for me. I think this year, I feel stronger, I feel I improved almost everything in my game. I feel much [more] comfortable right now than last year.”

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Hoping to help that comfort level is the decision to move him out of the center, where there is increased defensive responsibility in Quinn’s new system. It hasn’t exactly been easy for the team as a whole to adjust to a new philosophy, but the Rangers did manage to cut down on the turnovers and odd-man rushes against them in the Edmonton game.

Now it’s about trying to create some more offense, which can likely be aided by a player like Chytil getting more ice time — no matter the position.

“I think it makes the transition in the NHL a little bit easier, on the wing,” Quinn said. “He’s a guy that has an awful lot of talent. He’s had some good nights for us so far. But this will also give us a chance to play him more in a top-nine role, where we think he belongs and I think it’ll help his development.”