Yes, because he’s already essentially guaranteed he only wants to play for the NYR. Really no harm and waiting and hoping you can convince him to buy into a discount since he wants to stay here for so long. Especially for a team with some pretty iffy contracts already
The idea that Fox will only ever play for the Rangers is nonsense. Sure he forced his way there when breaking into the league, in part because they're his hometown team yes, but also because they were in the perfect stage of a rebuild to give a young defenseman all the slack he needed to develop.
Now that he has developed into arguably the best defenseman in the league, however, who's to say he wasn't willing to sign somewhere else to maximize his earnings? People love to point out that past performance is not indicative of future performance. Well, past preferences aren't indicative of future preferences either. Believe it or not, players are actually human beings with thoughts and feelings that might change over time. Who knew??