Rangers burgeoning youth providing plenty of hope for bright future

The doom and gloom surrounding the Rangers this season has been all encompassing, draining and taxing. A 6-2 thrashing of the last-place Blackhawks isn’t going to completely clear the sky, but it stopped the downpour — even if only momentarily. Coming off a weekend in which Filip Chytil dazzled and a couple of prospects played integral roles in Team USA’s IIHF World Junior Championship repeat gold medal win, however, the sun appears to be shining on the future of the Blueshirts organization. Chytil had the same pop and swagger in the past two games that he showed through the first month and a half of the season, before the Czech center missed seven games for an upper-body injury that was deemed not a concussion. Posting three goals on six shots in the past two games, Chytil set a new season-high point streak of four contests. He appeared to be heating up the two games before that, too, when the 25-year-old ripped a pass off the boards to spring Brett Berard for his breakaway goal vs.the Bruins after he went five-hole on Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky in the previous game in Florida. After signing a four-year, $17.75 million contract in March 2023, Chytil is on the Rangers’ books through 2026-27.

He’s set to become an unrestricted free agent after that, so it’s yet to be seen whether or not Chytil will be part of the long-term plan. The biggest knock against him is his durability, but the prospect of a whole season with a fully healthy Chytil is tantalizing — especially considering no one knows what that looks like. Outside of the Rangers bubble, prospects Gabriel Perreault and Drew Fortescue bit into their third gold medal together on Sunday after Team USA successfully defended their title at the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship in Ottawa, Ontario. The Rangers’ top two picks in the 2023 NHL Draft were standouts in the international tournament, which the U.S.claimed after rallying from a two-goal deficit to beat Finland 4-3 in overtime...