NHL

Devils may tell Parise to pack up

The deconstruction of the Devils has begun. Painful though it may be to cast away estimable champions such as Jamie Langenbrunner, this is going to be the easy part for general manager Lou Lamoriello.

The reconstruction is going to be the difficult part, though it couldn’t be simpler to identify the first and most critical component of that process: Signing Zach Parise to a contract extension that ensures the presumptive next captain of the club remains in New Jersey for the duration of his career.

Parise, perhaps out for the season after undergoing surgery in early November to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee, is coming up on restricted free agency, and is a season away from being able to escape scot-free.

If the 26-year-old winger hits the open market during the summer of 2012, he will become unarguably the greatest player in NHL history to attain freedom at such a young age. And if he gets there as a Devil, it will mark a catastrophic failure for the proud franchise that once stood tall over its neighbors but has been brought to its knees through a series of fiascos since the start of the summer.

Here’s the crux of it and here’s what makes this such a difficult situation. In order for the Devils to restore the natural order, the deal must be complete by this year’s Entry Draft.

If Lamoriello cannot convince Parise to take the money the Devils will throw at him, if Parise is either unwilling or unable to commit to a lifetime of hockey as a Devil by late June, then the GM is going to have to hold an auction for his best player in order to secure as much young talent and as many high draft picks as possible as quickly as possible.

Parise has given no indication of where he believes his future lies, other than to say he has not decided a thing. Ordinarily, the Devils would allow the decision to be deferred into next season.

But given the extraordinary circumstances that have kneecapped the franchise, the Devils cannot take the risk Parise could go free without a return — or diminished return as a 2012 deadline rental — by permitting him to play out next year on a one-year salary arbitration contract.

The Devils may have no leverage here, but the looming expiration of the CBA following next season combined with the injury that will make salary arbitration a problematic exercise for No. 9 does give Lamoriello advantages in these negotiations he would otherwise not own.

A prominent agent told Slap Shots on Friday that arbitration for a player limited to as few as 25 games — Parise, still hoping to get back for the final couple of weeks, played 12 in October — is essentially unheard of and would be a risky proposition, since durability becomes part of the case.

Coming off prior consecutive 92-point and 84-point seasons in which he scored 45 and 38 goals, respectively, Parise could normally have expected, what, $7 million in arbitration? Now, though, it’s impossible to know the impact this lost season will have on an arbitrator. So Parise, earning $3.125 million this year, may not get enough of a bump to go through with it.

Perhaps more importantly, however, the threat (or promise) of a new CBA under which players will face additional negotiating restrictions, leaves the Devils in position to offer more than any other team once the new rules are in place that probably will include a lower percentage of the gross for the athletes, term limits on contracts and a reduction in maximum salary.

Lamoriello thus can offer Parise a 13-year contract for up to $12 million per — the salary will be lower than that, but likely will be in the $8 million range — while GMs under the new CBA might not be able to offer more than a six-year contract.

And even if there is a salary rollback, difficult as it is to envision NHLPA executive director Don Fehr acceding to one, long-term contracts already in effect will not be truncated, for that adjustment would send people like Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Duncan Keith and Henrik Zetterberg into unrestricted free agency well before their time.

So Parise will have a choice. He can commit now to a lifetime in New Jersey for far more money than he’d be able to earn under a new CBA or he can choose to take his chances somewhere else at a later date.

If he decides the latter, Lamoriello will have no choice. He cannot allow Parise to go for nothing the way Scott Niedermayer went for nothing. He will have to move his best player this year.

Trading Langenbrunner was the easy part.

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If HBO’s bang-up, compelling “24/7” is going to become a standard lead-in to the Winter Classic, then it’s likely clubs will be chosen to play in the NHL’s signature Jan. 1 outdoor game by virtue of their willingness to provide access to the cameras and microphones, or eliminated thereto.

One NHL official, when asked by Slap Shots whether the league has the power to compel cooperation with HBO, replied this way: “No, but we do control who is selected to play in the Winter Classic.”

And if Comcast/NBC (presuming approval of the merger) insist the Comcast-owned Flyers host next year’s contest as a condition of its next contract with the league, romance in the way of Central Park will quickly give way to reality.

It has become a nit more difficult to suggest the league has gone beyond the pale in protecting Crosby in light of Dave Steckel’s blow to No. 87’s head at Heinz Field that was neither penalized nor drew a suspension when later reviewed by Colin Campbell.

We’re aware, by the way, that Sixth Avenue is enjoying a run of success to the point where way too many positive words have been directed from this space toward the cartel. We trust that will change in the near future. . . .

Mattias Tedenby, young, fast, positive and unencumbered by the paralysis infecting many of his teammates, is the anti-2010-11 Devil.

So naturally he has been scratched three straight games by Jacques Lemaire, who apparently believes giving minutes to Adam Mair and Brian Rolston are critical to the rebirth of the franchise.

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So we’re told Carolina GM Gentleman Jim Rutherford wasn’t quite so gentlemanly when he stormed into the Hurricanes’ room between the second and third periods of the Dec. 29 match in Toronto and berated his club for losing a second-period lead following a pair of defeats.

Old-time hockey.

A reliable warbler related not only that tale, but that Rutherford, somewhat mortified by his actions the morning after Carolina’s 4-3 victory, apologized over breakfast to captain Eric Staal for invading the team’s — and the coaches’ — turf. Staal told the GM no apologies were necessary. . .

Ben Eager’s fist was the weapon, it was aimed and delivered with malicious intent to the head of Colby Armstrong on Friday and should earn the Atlanta goon no less than a suspension into double digits, no less than that.

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Finally, it’s good to see Dave Karpa has made a comeback to the NHL, but why has the defenseman returned wearing the uniform of Henrik Tallinder?

larry.brooks@nypost.com