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Friday morning, the Capitals announced that they re-signed Taylor Chorney to a two-year extension. Chorney will get a raise over the $700,000 he signed for over the offseason. Chorney will make $775,000 in 2016-17 and $825,000 in 2017-18.

Chorney’s re-signing comes after the depth defenseman was a regular in the line-up for the longest stretch of his career. Chorney played 45 games after Brooks Orpik suffered a lower body injury. Chorney has been a healthy scratch the last two games since Orpik returned Tuesday.

RMNB’s Pat Holden recently wrote about Chorney’s good patch of play, where the defenseman’s possession stats ranked in the top half percentile of 173 defensemen who have played at least 500 5v5 minutes this season. The Caps may think it was good to strike a deal now with the possibility Chorney could have gotten a bigger deal if he reached the free agent market.

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The Washington Capitals have re-signed defenseman Taylor Chorney to a two-year contract extension, senior vice president and general manager Brian MacLellan announced today. Chorney will earn $775,000 in 2016-17 and $825,000 in 2017-18.

Chorney, 28, has registered five assists and 17 penalty minutes in 45 games with the Capitals this season. The Hastings, Minnesota, native has set career highs in games played, assists, points and plus/minus (+11) this season and has been plus or even in 34 of 45 games. Chorney earned his first Capitals point with an assist on Nov. 19 against Dallas and was a career-high +3 on Dec. 20 against the NY Rangers in a season-high 18:40 of ice time. The 6’0”, 190-pound defenseman has registered 12 points (one goal, 11 assists) and 33 penalty minutes in 113 career NHL games with Edmonton, St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Washington. Chorney was selected by Edmonton in the second round, 36th overall, in the 2005 NHL Draft. His father, Marc, played in 210 NHL games with Pittsburgh and Los Angeles from 1980-84 and appeared in 48 games with Washington’s AHL affiliate, the Binghamton Whalers, during the 1984-85 season.

Chorney played three seasons at the University of North Dakota (2005-08) and reached the Frozen Four in all three seasons with Fighting Sioux. In 2007-08, Chorney earned First-Team All-American honors. He represented the United States at 2010 World Championship and the 2006 World Junior Championship and captured a gold medal at the 2005 World Under-18 Championship and a bronze medal at the 2007 World Junior Championship.