The Filip Chytil extension is another Chris Drury home run

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If you are here before seeing the welcome post, please read it as it explains everything moving forward.

You would be forgiven with all the current distractions if you weren't thinking about the cap crunch this summer.

There was the massive trade deadline where Chris Drury landed Vladimir Tarasenko and Niko Mikkola before he then turned around and traded for Patrick Kane after two weeks of cap-saving trials to make enough space down to the almost literal penny. There's the race for home ice advantage (which continues tonight against the Devils), Igor Shesterkin's resurgence, the Kreider Zibanejad bromance, the Tyler Motte reunion, and the kids doing their thing.

Oh, there's also that looming playoff run that feels ever so much more important since this team is built in a way that it's almost statistically impossible for it to come together like this again next year.

Or ... is it.

While fans were focusing on said looming playoff run, Chris Drury was in his office doing work. Out of the blue, the New York Rangers announced a four-year extension with rising star Filip Chytil at a ridiculously team-friendly $4.4375-million AAV.

The course correction for Chytil within the organization is enormous. This past summer there was legitimate anxiety Chytil might be the odd man out – especially when Drury signed UFA Vincent Trocheck to a seven-year deal worth north of $5.6-million AAV. Not only did that signify the Rangers apparently didn't trust or expect Chytil to take on or grow into the 2C role, it also sort of paved a path where Chytil was "expendable" in what was already a cap crunch situation for the organization.

That crunch never happened, and both Gerard Gallant and Drury have watched their little 23-year-old first round pick explode onto the scene after his monster playoff performance last year to the tune of a 22-20-42 line in 66 games so far (last year in the regular season he had 22 points in 67 games).

Chytil admittedly has cooled off from a white-hot stretch earlier in the year in which this was commonplace:

But is picking things back up where he left off.

Which sort of leads us back to right now.

Chytil is a critical part of this team currenty, both in his play-driving on a kid line that has had some ups and down, and also the secondary scoring from the bottom six. There have a few times, genuinely, where the bottom-six (post trade-deadline) has been the offensive fuel for the New York Rangers' fire. Kakko, Lafreniere, and Chytil have been a big part of that – with Chytil being the most consistent offensive force of the three to date.

To see Chytil having this type of developmental year, and then subsequently signing this type of contract extension, is brilliant work by Chris Drury that simply has to be applauded. I tweeted it last night after the news broke, but all of the kids (Chytil, Kakko, Lafreniere mainly) have seen their first experiences in the NHL disrupted by COVID in some way or another.

And yet, all of them have taken major steps forward this year (all are gunning on career-high point totals), and making improvements on their game.

Ice time that was a problem earlier in the year seems to be sorted out. Power play time is being distributed a little better. Gallant has the kids on the ice late in games a little more consistently regardless of the score. He hasn't been perfect, don't get me wrong, but they have forced his hand in a way they weren't doing earlier in the year.

And now Chytil is locked up long(er) term on a fantastic term. If contract extensions were on his mind leading into the playoffs, they aren't anymore – which might be an "unseen" benefit to the deal being done right now. On that note: Kakko is signed through next summer with his bridge deal, and Drury can worry about Lafreniere and K'Andre Miller this summer.

If he even waits that long.