NHL

Doan familiar with Rangers coaching staff

Shane Doan has spent his entire 17-year NHL career in the Western Conference with the Winnipeg/Phoenix organization, but his familiarity with the Rangers coaching staff could make New York one of the free agent left wing’s preferred landing spots if he decides to leave the Coyotes.

Doan, who is evaluating the Phoenix ownership situation even as he has begun to review offers from pre-approved suitors including the Blueshirts, has a history with all four coaches on the Rangers’ staff, notably a long-standing friendship with assistant general manager/assistant coach Jim Schoenfeld, who was the Coyotes’ head coach in the 35-year-old’s third and fourth NHL seasons.

Blueshirts head coach John Tortorella was Schoenfeld’s assistant those two years (1997-98 and 1998-99) while assistant coach and goaltending instructor Benoit Allaire held that same post with Phoenix for seven years beginning in 1997. Assistant coach Mike Sullivan, meanwhile, was a teammate of Doan’s from 1998 through 2002.

While Doan ponders his options, the Rangers moved yesterday to sign 36-year-old free agent Jeff Halpern, whose acquisition should fill holes in the middle of the fourth line, on the penalty killing unit and in the faceoff circle.

Halpern, who played last season for the Capitals, thus joins fellow free-agent signees Taylor Pyatt from the Coyotes and Arron Asham from the Penguins as replacements for John Mitchell, Ruslan Fedotenko and Brandon Prust, who left for the Avalanche, Flyers and Canadiens, respectively.

Halpern, who signed a one-year deal worth $700,000, recorded 16 points (4-12) in 69 games for the Caps but was scratched from the final seven regular-season games and first 12 playoff matches before getting into the lineup for Games 6 and 7 against the Rangers in the conference semis as an injury replacement for Jay Beagle.

The center, who averaged 12:36 of ice during the regular season, led Washington forwards in short-handed ice time per game and is a prime candidate to fill one of the Blueshirts’ penalty-killing spots vacated by Prust and Fedotenko,

A native of Potomac, Md., who attended Princeton, Halpern had an estimable 58.4 percent faceoff efficiency mark, fourth-best in the NHL, though he took just 625 draws (365-260), fourth-most on the Caps and 93rd-most in the NHL.

The Rangers were 18th at the dots during the regular season at 49.9 percent and 15th out of 16 in the playoffs at 48.4 percent.