NHL

Rangers hold on to Talbot — for now — as Flames to turn up heat

SUNRISE, Fla. — So, Glen Sather was unable to parlay the interest in Cam Talbot into a first-round selection in the NHL draft that commenced with round one on Friday night.

But that does not mean the Blueshirts’ general manager, whose backup netminder had drawn serious interest from six teams — the Flames, Oilers, Sabres, Stars, Sharks and Panthers — as the day began, necessarily overplayed his hand.

Nor does it mean Talbot will remain a Ranger by the end of Saturday, when rounds two through seven will be conducted.

Indeed, The Post has learned the Flames, who sent the 15th, 45th and 52nd overall selections to the Bruins for Dougie Hamilton in the afternoon, intend to go back at it and submit a bid for the Blueshirts’ incumbent understudy to Henrik Lundqvist.

Additionally, The Post has learned the Panthers have offered 25-year-old center Jimmy Hayes, older brother of the Rangers’ Kevin Hayes, to the Blueshirts as part of a package for Talbot, who would then become Roberto Luongo’s backup, at least for the short-term.

The elder Hayes is an impending restricted free agent with a $971,000 qualifier seeking a much more expensive multi-year deal that probably would not fit into the Rangers’ limited cap space. If, however, the lure of playing with his sibling would be enough for Jimmy Hayes to play on a qualifier, there might be something there.

The Sabres dropped out after acquiring goaltender Robin Lehner and center David Legwand from the Senators for the 21st pick. The Oilers then fell out of the picture when they swapped the 16th and 33rd selections to the Islanders for 21-year-old defenseman Griffin Reinhart, who had been the fourth-overall pick in 2012 but obviously had slid down the Isles’ organizational depth chart.

The Stars and Sharks remain interested parties, with San Jose holding the 39th pick and Dallas the 49th selection on Saturday morning. Of course, Sather could be satisfied with multiple picks that might come from next year.

A Talbot deal, which has been anticipated since the moment the Rangers were eliminated in Game 7 of the conference finals by Tampa Bay, would allow the Blueshirts to restock the organization’s prospects, compromised by trades in which four consecutive first-rounders (2013-16) and top teenager Anthony Duclair had been sent away in deals for Rick Nash, Martin St. Louis and Keith Yandle.

It would also create an additional $500,000 to $800,000 of precious cap space once the Rangers sign or otherwise obtain a relatively low-cost veteran to back up Lundqvist.

But make no mistake, the Rangers would lose an asset in Talbot. He went 16-4-3 with a .929 save percentage and 2.16 goals-against average starting 23 of the 25 games in which Lundqvist was sidelined last winter recuperating from the vascular injury he sustained on Jan. 31.

In his two years as a Ranger since joining the NHL, the technically sound and unflappable Talbot compiled a 33-15-5 mark with a .931 save percentage. and 2.00 goals-against average with eight shutouts. while allowing two goals or fewer in 33 of his 53 starts for one of the league’s best defensive teams.

As The Post first reported Thursday, Sather had given permission to interested parties to speak to Talbot’s agent, George Bazos, about whether the goaltender — who will turn 28 in a couple of weeks — might be amenable to a contract extension. Under terms of the collective bargaining agreement, an extension cannot be negotiated or signed until January.

Trade talk had dominated the day — with Hamilton to the Flames and Milan Lucic to the Kings representing a pair of headline deals — but subsided at least momentarily when the draft commenced, with Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel going first and second overall to the Oilers and Sabres, respectively.

The Coyotes, who had been dangling the third overall selection throughout the day, kept the pick, which they used on Dylan Strome when no team was willing to meet Arizona’s demand for a bounty. Mitchell Marner went fourth to Toronto and Noah Hanifin fifth to Carolina before the Devils made center Pavel Zacha of Sarnia (OHL) the first pick of the Ray Shero Era at sixth overall.