Contract talks Staaled

S O, IT has been seven weeks since Alec Martinez ended the Rangers’ season in Los Angeles, seven weeks in which general manager Glen Sather has made no attempt to lock up Marc Staal with a longterm contract extension before he goes into his potential walk year.

“There’s been no discussion at all, but I did get a call from Jeff early in the offseason telling me that they were working on their arbitration cases, so not to interpret it as a sign of disrespect toward Marc,” agent Paul Krepelka told Slap Shots on Thursday, referring to assistant general manager Jeff Gorton. “I expect that we will be talking at some point before training camp.

“Marc’s objective is to sign a longterm deal with the Rangers, and he would like to get it done before the season starts. That hasn’t changed. “But we’ll see.” What we’ll see is if Sather and the Rangers have learned their lesson from last year, when delayed and protracted negotiations with pending restricted free agents Henrik Lundqvist, Ryan Callahan and Dan Girardi unnecessarily intruded on the season and created a circus atmosphere leading up to the trade deadline.

It’s true, the Rangers did have July 1 unrestricted free agency and po tential arbitration cases with Group IIs Derick Brassard, Mats Zuccarello and Chris Kreider with which to deal throughout much of last month, but there is no legitimate reason at this moment for management not to be kneedeep in negotiations with the alternate captain.

Because the sooner the Rangers determine Staal’s bottom line — which, at a minimum will be the same $33 million over six years ($5.5 million per) for which Girardi signed days prior to the trade deadline — the sooner they can decide whether to meet it and the sooner they can begin trade talks if they determine the cost is too high.

Staal is going to hit a home run on this contract, whether in New York or not. A legitimate topfour who plays with bite, has the peripheral numbers to answer questions about a possible loss of some peripheral vision in his right eye, and who always represents his team with class, Staal won’t turn 28 until January.

Maybe he’ll want seven years at $6 million per to stay. Maybe he’ll be willing to take the Girardi deal. Maybe the Rangers — who have committed more than $30 million in cap space this season to their top five defensemen, including Staal at $3.975 million, and their No. 1 goaltender — will decide any price is too high to keep No. 18.

So, the Rangers not only might as well find out now what it will take to keep Staal and keep together the foundation on D — built around the Big Three of Staal, Girardi and Ryan McDonagh — they must know now. Because the sooner to explore the trade market, the better. If the Blueshirts are going to trade Staal, they had better to do it sooner rather than later and avoid the angst that accompanied the Girardi and Callahan scenarios through last winter that benefitted no one.

“I saw those two guys go through it with the negotiations and all of the rumors that are impossible to avoid if you’re on the last year of your contract, and it’s not something I really want to go through,” Staal told The Post in March.

“The contract situation is definitely something I would like to take care of over the summer,” he said then. “That’s the goal, but it also has to be the way management looks at it, too, in order to get it done.”

It is now August. It is time to get this done, and if not one way, then the other. Why on earth does everything take so long with the Rangers?

Dan Lacroix has left his position as Alain Vigneault’s eye in the sky on the Rangers’ coaching staff to join the Canadiens and head coach Michel Therrien as a bench assistant, so it’s a step up and step closer to home for him. The Blueshirts are working on a replacement.

Claude Loiselle, recently dismissed as Toronto assistant GM by onetime Devils teammate and now Maple Leafs president Brendan

Shanahan, is expected to be named Shanahan’s successor as VP of the NHL Department of Player Safety, we’re told by a wellplaced source.

Michael Del Zotto remains on the market as an unsigned free agent, with one club executive telling Slap Shots the 24yearold defenseman’s reputation is in tatters around the league following his fizzle in Nashville that came in the wake of his exit from New York.

Sounds like a great time to buy low on this very talented — and perhaps now even humbled — young man. Hard to believe the Islanders aren’t all over this. Seriously.

Enjoy the rest of the summer.