NHL

Lundqvist doesn’t commit to Rangers long term

Henrik Lundqvist chose his words very carefully yesterday when the subject of a potential contract extension this summer was raised at yesterday’s breakup day, so I sure won’t put any words in his mouth.

But know this: The words did not come out of the Rangers’ franchise player’s mouth that would have put owner Jim Dolan, general manager Glen Sather, coach John Tortorella and the entirety of Rangers’ Nation at ease.

Those words would have been: “Yes, my intention is to sign a long-term extension and play my entire career in New York.”

Instead the words from the goaltender, who has one year remaining on his deal and is thus eligible to sign an extension on July 5, were these:

“I’m going to talk to my agent and will see. I [have] had such a great time in New York. They’ve treated me really well and gave me the opportunity to play.

“It’s been a lot of fun. I have one more year on my contract and we’ll see.”

Again, The King didn’t say that next summer he will be searching for a different location for his castle. Didn’t say he was looking for an exit. But he didn’t say he was committed to staying, either.

Maybe this was Lundqvist simply starting negotiations. But maybe not. Maybe the 31-year-old reigning Vezina winner and 2013 finalist is going to take some time, perhaps all of next season, to evaluate whether committing to the Rangers represents his best chance to win the Stanley Cup.

There is very little doubt that Lundqvist, operating on a six-year contract under which he is earning an average of $6.875 million per, will surpass Alex Ovechkin ($9.538 million per) as the NHL’s highest paid player.

Lundqvist’s asking price is likely to be a minimum of $80 million for eight years, the maximum length allowed for a player re-signing with his own team.

It is a King’s Ransom, all right, but he will get it. The open-ended question that Lundqvist did answer yesterday is whether he will seek that somewhere else next summer.

While essentially every player on the club expressed regret over the season — Callahan: “We underachieved;” Lundqvist: “It was a step back” — Tortorella dissented.

“I know I’m supposed to feel it was a disappointing season, but I don’t buy it and I won’t,” the coach said. “I don’t think we took a step back. I think it was a sideways step.”

It is impossible to know whether Tortorella was playing the contrarian, in denial, or delusional, but saying it does not make it so.

While management is dealing with Lundqvist, it is also essential to sign restricted free agent defenseman Ryan McDonagh to a contract before he becomes eligible for an offer sheet from, say, the Flyers.

The Rangers have a policy of signing players off Entry Level to two-year bridge contracts, but, A) policies are made to be amended — there once was a policy of not issuing no-move clauses and then along came Chris Drury — and, B) it would be foolish for the Blueshirts to allow Philadelphia to establish the price for McDonagh.

Of course, if the Rangers sign McDonagh to a long-term deal, they would be bound to do the same for Derek Stepan. But that’s the price of doing business.

The Blueshirts will have approximately $20 million of available space if, as seems inevitable, Brad Richards is bought out. That’s before signing McDonagh, Stepan, and fellow restricted free agents Carl Hagelin and Mats Zuccarello. That’s without Ryane Clowe. That’s with four or five spots open.

Lundqvist enjoys a certain lifestyle. There may not be many teams in preferred cities with both the need and the means for the goaltender who have a greater chance to win over the next few seasons than the Rangers.

But given the chance to pledge his future to a New York he so clearly loves, the goaltender declined. Maybe it was a gambit. Maybe it was a way of warning management not to take him for granted.

But maybe he is skeptical about the program. If that is the case, the Rangers should be afraid.

They should be very afraid of taking another step sideways.