Addressing the Chytil injury: Is Morgan Frost a realistic option?

With Filip Chytil’s health a big question mark, it’s easy to dive into worst case scenario. After all, we’ve seen promising young players derailed by concussions before with Mike Sauer coming to mind. As is natural, many are looking at the worst case scenario and finding other options to replace Chytil this season. Morgan Frost, a recent healthy scratch in Philly, has been the leading discussion point thus far.

Frost, the Flyers’ 1st round pick in 2017, has had a disappointing start to the season with a line of 2-2-4 in 10 games. He’s been a healthy scratch for 8 games, and the Flyers seem to be chugging along just fine to the tune of 5 straight wins, the most recent over Columbus with Frost as a scratch.

Frost has spent most of his time, when playing with Owen Tippett and Travis Konecny in the Flyers top-six. He’s been a solid play driver, and even though the points aren’t there yet this year, they were there last year to the tune of 19-27-46 in 81 games. The offense is there, and Frost would certainly address the Rangers’ need for play driving and sustained offensive zone time.

For what it’s worth, Frost’s contract would fit for the Rangers, with another year left at $2.1 million. He is most likely unavailable via trade, especially to the Rangers.

It’s certainly easy to point to Frost as a healthy scratch and say that the Rangers should target him. It’s much more difficult to find a trade package that address the Flyers’ needs, and even more difficult to find one that would convince them to send a promising young center to a division rival.

Aside from the obvious reasons why this trade won’t work, the Rangers have no idea about the severity of Chytil’s concussions. None of us are doctors here, and the only thing we have to go on is his concussion history. It’s also been documented that a player is more susceptible to concussions after the first one.

The concern over Chytil’s concussions are real. But it’s a little premature to start looking at long term replacements, which is what Frost would be. The Rangers will play this slowly, letting the situation and the deadline play out. The only thing we do know is there are no centers in Hartford that can fill the void left by Chytil. If the time comes to replace him for this season, it will be via trade.