The best player on the ice made a loud Rangers statement

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There was the slightest hesitation, but eventually Filip Chytil said what he meant.

“I’m trying to have a lot of fun here, and I think that’s the most important for me because I’m trying — not trying — I’m playing my game,” the Rangers’ terrific young center told The Post after a high-intensity training camp scrimmage up in Westchester on Monday afternoon where he was arguably the best player on the ice, scoring twice.

Coming off his rookie season when the 19-year-old Czech played nine NHL games following his selection with the No. 21-overall pick in the draft, Chytil is hoping to show that he can stick with the Blueshirts during this year of organizational transition. With another summer under his belt of training and acclimating to the language and culture, it’s hard to see Chytil not being on the roster when the regular season opens on Oct. 4.

“I played a couple games last year at the end of the season, and I feel great, I feel better, I feel more ready,” Chytil said. “I think after this summer, I feel stronger and faster and more skilled. I think I feel much better.”

The scrimmage was for the remaining players of the Rangers’ still-large training camp roster who didn’t go to the preseason opener on Monday night, a 4-3 OT victory over the Devils in Newark. But with a gathering that included a lot of regular NHL players, Chytil was the one that stuck out the most.

“He’s got incredible vision,” said first-year head coach David Quinn, who watched from above before heading to Jersey. “He is as fast with the puck as he is without it. I thought today he started using his linemates better and the other four guys on the ice with him more. As you can see, it helped.”

After last season ended, Chytil went back to the Czech Republic for just two weeks to see friends and family. He then returned to New York where he lived with a billet family in Yonkers and worked daily with a couple of teammates in Stamford with renowned trainer Ben Prentiss.

“I feel more comfortable right now and stronger,” Chytil said. “It’s my second year, so I have more experience.”

Chytil looks bigger and stronger and faster, and he is surely more comfortable than he was last year at this time when he shocked a couple of people by making Alain Vigneault’s team right out of training camp. But he played just two games before it became clear that he was being overwhelmed by the NHL, getting sent down to spend most of the year with AHL Hartford.

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The franchise could have sent him back to his junior team at home where he would have been a lot more comfortable, but general manager Jeff Gorton believed what Chytil told him — that he thought he was an NHL player. Chytil was then recalled in late March to play seven more games, keeping him under the limit of 10 that would have burned the first year of his entry-level contract.

He then participated in the developmental camp just after the draft in late June, and went to play in the Traverse City tournament in Michigan just before training camp opened late last week. But Monday’s scrimmage was the first time in a while that he was on with that many high-level pros, and Quinn thought that was one reason he shined.

“I think kids with his skill set usually are [better in that scenario] because they play better with better players,” Quinn said. “He’s got the skill set, and his game is highlighted more in a game like this than it would be in, say, Michigan or development camp.”

If Mika Zibanejad is the presumptive top center, and Kevin Hayes is again set to be focused as a two-way pivot as he was in Vigneault’s final year, then that offensive role as a second-line center might be Chytil’s to lose. Either way, there is ample opportunity to earn big minutes. Chytil knows that, and is trying to take advantage early.

“I think there are opportunities for everyone,” Chytil said. “We have some spots in the roster, in the lineup, so I’m trying to play my game and keep working.”