Filip Chytil's hunger to always improve is what drives him

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – As hot as he was, the fact that he entered Wednesday’s game against the Vancouver Canucks not having scored a goal in two whole games, almost felt like something of a slump for Filip Chytil.

“A hundred and 20 minutes now without goal! That's crazy,’’ Chytil joked after the Rangers’ practice at Rogers Arena on Tuesday. “And so many chances too, right? Breakaways, two-on-ones. I have to give the goalie some credit for that, you know?’’

It was easy for Chytil, who is always quick with wisecracks, to joke around, because everything is going about as well as it could for the 23-year-old right now. Before his two-game “drought,’’ the young Czech, the center on the Kid Line, between wingers Alexis Lafrenière and Kaapo Kakko, had scored goals in five straight games – seven, total.

He entered Wednesday’s game with 11 goals in his last 15 games, and 19 this season, third-most on the Rangers, behind Mika Zibanejad (27) and Chris Kreider (21). He was so hot that last week he earned himself a promotion to the first power-play unit.

“I don't know what his ceiling is going to be,’’ coach Gerard Gallant said Wednesday of Chytil. “I mean, he's a great hockey player.’’

“I want to be the No. 1 center of the team,’’ Chytil said, turning serious. “I want to win Stanley Cups. That's what motivates me.’’

Chytil said he was happy to have 19 goals and called that “a very good number.’’ But he made it clear that while getting to the 20-goal plateau for the first time in his five-year career “would be nice,’’ he wants more than that.

“When there's still 29 games left, I still want to go until the end, until the last minute of the last game of the regular season,’’ the former first-round pick said. “So even if I would, for example, set my goals that I want 20… I don't want to stop. I don't say, 'I don't want to score any more goals, that's it.’ I push. If it's 20, I want to reach 25. If I reach 25, good, I’ll go for 30.’’

It's that hunger to always be better that drives him, he said, and not the potential payday that awaits him this summer as a restricted free agent with arbitration rights. At his current pace, he would finish with 31 goals in 74 games, and those kinds of numbers could maybe earn him double his current $2.3 million salary, or perhaps more.

But he insisted it’s not about the money for him.

“Money? No. Money doesn't drive me at all,’’ he said. “Of course, everybody in the world has to have money to live. But for me, it's not on top of the list of (the reasons) why I do this. I do it because I want to be the best. I want to be the best version of myself that I can be.

“So for me, I know my contract is at the end now, after the season,’’ he said. “I'm not thinking about that. I just go and want to be the best I can be, and see what's going to be after that.’’

Chytil’s breakout year will create some complications for Rangers general manager Chris Drury this summer, though. The Rangers have 14 players under contract for next season, and about $16 million available to sign two or three forwards, two defensemen and a backup goalie.

Chytil, Lafrenière and defenseman K'Andre Miller are all going to need new contracts, and Miller, like Chytil, is having a great year. And Lafrenière is heating up, too. All of those three are going to command significant money, and that won’t leave much left for everyone else.

But that will be Drury’s problem, not Chytil’s.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.