Evening Notes: Chytil, NHL Awards, Hakanpää

New York Rangers center Filip Chytil isn’t in the lineup tonight and is now considered day-to-day (per Mollie Walker of The New York Post). The 24-year-old missed Saturday’s game with an unknown illness and now reportedly has an issue with soreness. The news led many to speculate that Chytil’s issues could be related to the concussions that limited him to ten regular season games, but Walker adds that the illness is unrelated to previous injuries.

Chytil has dealt with four documented concussions in his short career and will likely need to exercise caution anytime he has an upper-body injury going forward. A concussion sidelined him for over six months this season before he returned to the lineup for Game 3 on Thursday in Carolina. However, two days later he was not on the ice which brought about concern about his condition. Chytil skated with the team this morning and was reportedly a game-time decision tonight, but he was ultimately not included in the lineup.

In other evening notes:

• The NHL has announced a date and venue for the 2024 NHL Awards show. The show will take place on Thursday, June 27th at the brand-new Fontainebleau in Las Vegas. The show will begin at 7 pm and will be broadcast live on ESPN and Sportsnet. The NHL has been announcing nominees over the past few weeks and will now host the event in Las Vegas for the first time since 2019 and the 11th time overall.
• Ryan Boulding of NHL.com is reporting that the Dallas Stars dressed the same lineup tonight that they did in Game 3 against the Colorado Avalanche. The news means that Stars defenseman Jani Hakanpää remains sidelined with a lower-body injury. The 32-year-old hasn’t dressed since March 16th and has missed 13 regular season games, and 11 playoff games after tonight. Hakanpää’s time frame to return remains a mystery as he comes up on two months since the last time he played. Hakanpää dressed in 64 games this season, posting two goals and ten assists. The 6’6″, 225lb defender has been durable during his brief NHL career, missing just a handful of games since breaking into the league during the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season.