VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Derek Stepan starts off more than two weeks behind his teammates, but more important is the Rangers’ 2012-13 leading scorer will start the season with his team next Thursday night in Phoenix.
“I’m not far off,” Stepan, whose protracted stalemate with management ended Thursday in the form of a two-year, $6.15 million contract. “There are going to be some times where I need to catch up a little bit, but I don’t think I’m that far off.”
Stepan, who has been participating in practices with the University of Wisconsin varsity squad in Madison the last two weeks, was scheduled to fly to New York on Thursday night. The 23-year-old will go through physicals and on-ice testing Friday and skate on his own Saturday before his first practice with the club on Sunday after the Rangers return from their lengthy preseason trip that concludes with a match in Las Vegas against the Kings on Friday night.
“I don’t think either side expected that it would go this long,” Stepan said. “It was a tough year, the cap went down quite a bit, New York was in a tight spot, and it was an unfortunate situation, but I think we both handled it the best we could.
“There’s no bitterness. At a young age in my career I got to see the business side of it,” said Stepan, who has never missed a game in his three NHL seasons, playing 212 matches in the regular season and 37 in the playoffs. “It doesn’t go as smoothly as you would think sometimes and that’s a hard thing to grasp.
“But we got through it without too much damage to either side and we’re both happy to be done with it.”
Stepan’s $3.075 million cap hit represents a team-friendly deal that leaves the Rangers some maneuverability as they prepare to finalize their roster by Monday. There will be some wiggle room through October if, as expected, Carl Hagelin is placed on the Long Term Injury list.
Hagelin and Ryan Callahan, who is expected to miss at least the first half-dozen games, were Stepan’s wingers much of last season. Stepan was effective combining with Rick Nash, who was scheduled to play on a line with Derick Brassard and Benoit Pouliot Thursday night against the Canucks after playing his two exhibition games with Brad Richards and Chris Kreider.
“It’s huge for us; it’s great that he’s in,” Richards said. “I wish Hags and Cally were able to play. We’ve basically had an entire line missing from camp.”
Stepan had been seeking $7 million over two years after scaling back his request for a long-term deal commensurate with the contracts other players of his status and post-Entry Level category have been receiving around the league.
He said talks were jump-started on Monday when the Rangers presented this offer that he accepted after mulling it over for a couple of days. Stepan acknowledged the chance to play for the U.S. Olympic team had some impact on his decision to settle, but was not the overriding factor in concluding the deal.
“First and foremost I was looking forward to getting myself in a New York jersey,” he said. “I wanted a deal that was fair for me and fair for New York as well.
“There was urgency from the fact of being ready to play and New York was really ready to get this done.”
Stepan was in consistent contract with his close friend, Ryan McDonagh, and other teammates during camp.
“When you’re sitting at home and the team is working, you want to know what’s going on,” he said. “I was trying to get the scoops of where everything was at, just to keep myself in it mentally. I was asking about the systems and what the coach was looking for.
“I’m super excited about getting there.”