When the news broke yesterday about the contract extension for Filip Chytil, most fans were shocked at the news as we all thought that this potential deal would be done in the summer after the season. The deal is for 4 years with an AAV of $4.4375 million per season. Chytil will now be a member of the Rangers until at least the 2026-27 season.
This deal was a shocker because many thought Chytil would get over $5 million due to the season he is currently having, but this number is perfect for both the player and the team because of the upcoming cap situation the Rangers will find themselves in this summer.
After this signing, the Rangers will have around $12 million this summer to sign two key RFAs Alexis Lafreniere and K’Andre Miller, while also seeing if either Patrick Kane or Vladimir Tarasenko are willing to take a discount to stay or if they want to test the free agent market.
I wrote a story earlier this season about what a potential contract could look like for Chytil and the estimate I made was the deal would come in around or just above $4 million a year, so it was just about right. If the Rangers can get both Miller and Lafreniere to take cheaper deals and one of Kane or Tarasenko resigns for cheap, the Rangers could potentially run this team back and could go for more Stanley Cups in the next couple of years.
It was a surprise that this deal was signed this early because Chytil is just about to finish a career season and we still do not know how the playoffs will go for him. If he continues to score in the playoffs like he did last season, he could have gotten a lot more money and probably could have gotten a deal closer to $5 million and that would have made things harder for the Rangers.
Signing this deal now shows that Chytil wants to stay here and was willing to take a more fair deal to stay than to take a more lucrative deal for himself. He told reporters today, “That’s what I was focusing the most, staying with this team. Happy for four more years.”
With Chyti now locked up for the foreseeable future, the Rangers now have their top three centers locked up and it is a very dangerous trio of players. You have Mika Zibanejad, who is one point away from setting a new career high and is 4 goals away from another career high and you have Vincent Trocheck, who is having a very good first season as a Ranger.
This group of centers is the perfect group of centers to have and you need to have a deep center core if you want to win a Stanley Cup. With these centers and the group of talented wingers around them, it is going to be a dangerous forward group for years to come.
If there is one issue with the Chytil contract, it is that maybe if it was a year longer, it would be even better, but that is the only complaint you could have. Otherwise, this is the perfect deal and was signed at the perfect time. The player wanted this and the team definitely wanted t bring him back so they got the deal done now Chytil can continue to focus on his play and can now rest easy knowing that his future is locked down and he will be a New York Ranger for years to come.