NHL

Rangers let Prust walk, replace punch with Asham, Haley

Perhaps it was general manager Glen Sather’s “I don’t think we’re going to get that one done” declaration to The Post a week ago Friday night that gave Brandon Prust the strong hint the Blueshirts would not meet his asking price on the free-agent market.

“I really wasn’t sure [when the season ended], I thought there was a chance we would get a deal done, but that kind of changed over the last little while and I realized my time as a Ranger was done,” Prust said last night on a conference call after signing a rather staggering four-year, $10 million deal with the Canadiens.

“I understand that from the Rangers’ side too that it’s a business. I had a lot of good times [in New York] the last three years, I made a lot of friends, I love the organization and the way they treat us, I love the city.

“It’s a sad, crazy, mixed-emotional day.”

Prust played an extremely important role in the development of the Rangers’ Black-and-Blueshirt identity, displaying an unending willingness to sacrifice his body on behalf on his teammates and drop his gloves against the league’s heavyweights even as a 6-foot, 190-pound middleweight.

But management simply could not justify spending that type of money on a player who spent much of last season on the fourth line getting 11:56 of ice per game and whose role as a penalty killer diminished to a degree upon the development of Carl Hagelin.

It is believed the Rangers offered Prust a deal in the neighborhood of $6 million over three years.

“I talked to Torts [yesterday],” Prust said, referring to coach John Tortorella, who had said of Prust on breakup day, “I love the guy.”

“I didn’t talk to [Sather], but my agent did,” Prust said. “I know we like each other and I wanted to come back, but in the end, Montreal showed a lot more interest and that’s why I made this decision.”

The Blueshirts responded to losing Prust — who tied for the NHL lead with 20 fighting majors last season despite playing the final two months with a torn tendon in his right ring finger he sustained in a bout with Zenon Konopka — by signing 34-year journeyman Arron Asham and 26-year-old pugilist Micheal Haley.

The 5-11, 205-pound Asham, who will have played for every team in the Atlantic Division (Rangers, Devils, Islanders, Penguins, Flyers) once he steps onto the ice with the Blueshirts, recorded 16 points (5-11), 76 penalty minutes and eight fights in 64 games last year with Pittsburgh, playing 9:14 per.

Asham, who signed a two-year deal for $1 million per, will be ineligible to play in the season opener, as one game from the four-game suspension he received for high-sticking Philadelphia’s Brayden Schenn in the first period of Game 3 of the first round of the playoffs carries over into this year.

The 5-foot-10, 204-pound Haley engaged in seven fights in 111:14 of ice time in 14 games with the Islanders without registering a point. Two of those bouts were against Stu Bickel, the Rangers defenseman who re-upped yesterday with the Blueshirts for two years at $750,000 per.

Haley, who has played in 43 games over the course of his NHL career with the Islanders (two goals, one assist, 151 PIM, 15 fights), signed a two-year deal believed worth $600,000 per, with this season including a minor-league clause.

larry.brooks@nypost.com