Rangers Summer Catch Ups

Hockey is officially back. 

The New York Rangers hit the ice last week for training camp and are in the full swing of preseason action. With players back in town, check out how Jonny Brodzinski, Filip Chytil, K’Andre Miller and Igor Shesterkin spent their respective offseasons to refresh, recharge and ready themselves for the upcoming 2023-24 regular season.

JONNY BRODZINSKI

Following a stint with the Rangers during their 2023 Stanley Cup Playoff run followed by joining the Hartford Wolfpack for its eventual Eastern Conference Division Final loss in the 2023 Calder Cup Playoffs, Brodzinski returned to his home state of Minnesota for an enriching family-filled summer. 

The 30-year-old versatile forward attended a whopping total of seven weddings, three of which he was in. When he wasn’t occupied with wedding or groomsmen festivities, Brodzinski spent the bulk of his time on dad duty with his wife and their two daughters, who are three years old and eight months old. 

“It’s a nice schedule,” Brodzinski said. “You get to work out in the morning. I’m gone from eight to 11 o'clock and then I’m home and its dad duty, getting to be a dad all day. It’s really nice to see them grow up a little bit more in the summertime. During the year we’re gone for a week at a time or gone half the day. I was fortunate with our first one, Lucy, that we had her at the beginning of COVID, so I got to really see the first full year and a half of her life. You kind of take that for granted now during the year when you’re gone a lot. So, the summertime is a good time to reset with family.”

FILIP CHYTIL 

Following the Rangers’ conclusion of the postseason, Chytil returned to his native Czech Republic for a summer packed with competitive activities, friends, family and workout sessions, which left him refreshed after a “good rest of [his] head.” 

After taking a trip to Greece with his girlfriend, Chytil returned to Czechia where he noted he enjoys “spending time with my closest people back in my culture.” When taking a break from sessions on the ice, the 24-year-old centerman channeled his fierce competitive nature in a variety of sports he’d play against his friends from home.

“All of the things that I can compete at, that's what I love,” Chytil said. “We were playing tennis a lot, ping pong, swimming. I was playing a lot of sports. I started playing darts at home. I was getting good at all this stuff that I cannot do too much during the season, like a lot of water sports and then just working hard in the gym.”

Chytil, who is an avid Manchester United supporter, also had the opportunity to go on the set of CANAL+ Sport CZ/SK. 

“I was watching soccer and playing soccer also,” Chytil said. “I was fortunate that they invited me into the studio in the Czech Republic. That was a great experience, it was really cool.”

K’ANDRE MILLER

Like Brodzinski, Miller returned to the land of 10,000 lakes, where he had a fruitful, laid-back summer. Miller detailed his daily routine, where he’d knock out his workout by noon and then walk two minutes from his family’s house straight to the beach and head out on the water for the rest of the day.

“It was a relaxing summer,” Miller said. “I was pretty motivated in the summer to just feel good heading into this season and focus on getting my body right and getting my mind right. Obviously, it's been a long, long couple of first years without a break or without that extended break.”

While Miller didn’t pick up darts like Chytil, he and his hometown pals instead joined in on the pickleball craze, where they’d find a court and knock around the plastic ball with paddles for hours at a time. 

“I'm part of that movement,” Miller said with a laugh. “I play with all my buddies back home. Our three big things were to get out on the lake, take ice baths and then just play pickle ball until the moon came out. It was awesome - just a lot of good laughs and it gets pretty competitive.”

IGOR SHESTERKIN

For Shesterkin, his offseason featured vacations centered around warm temperatures and sunshine and plenty of time spent with family and friends. The 27-year-old netminder spent the summer both back in his home country of Russia and also down in Miami, where he has some friends and a trainer. 

After returning to Russia, Shesterkin joined his family for a trip that has been a staple throughout his childhood. 

“I [went] to Turkey, it was cool,” Shesterkin said. “I had been there before when I was young, every summer. I’ve been there already like 18 or 16 times. It’s a pretty cool place. All Russians like warm places.”

Aside from gym workouts, Shesterkin mixed in some other activities like soccer and swimming to fuel his competitive drive.

“Usually when I spend my summer in Russia, I play soccer with my father and his friends,” Shesterkin said. “[We play] lots of soccer because [my father] was a professional soccer player, but I don’t play goalie in soccer. I do enough of that here in hockey. But this summer, I was a little bit more like Michael Phelps, any style.”