Free agency just put Rangers at a Kevin Hayes crossroads

One look at the cost of doing business Sunday reveals this truth as self-evident: If Kevin Hayes reaches the open market next July, the recently turned, 26-year-old center can expect a payday of around $30 million over five years, if not more.

So the choice confronting the Rangers and general manager Jeff Gorton over the next few weeks, if not the next few days, is whether to complete a deal with Hayes for a similar type contract or complete a deal for him with one of the varied teams that need a center around the league.

One or the other. There doesn’t seem to be a middle ground regarding this player who has significant value in the middle for the Blueshirts. It would be folly to allow Hayes to go through arbitration and play on a one-year contract. That is not an option.

Perhaps not coincidentally, management moved with unusual — if not unique — speed to re-up Vladislav Namestnikov on Sunday to his two-year, $8 million deal. The Rangers typically do not deal with their Group II’s until after they file for arbitration. Thursday is the deadline for that. If Hayes is dealt, Namestnikov becomes a center.

The Rangers don’t have the need to keep amassing draft picks. Well, they kind of do, for the more the merrier in order to create a pipeline to Broadway and the type of organization a premier free agent would be eager to join. When John Tavares made reference to the Marlies having won the AHL championship in his introductory press conference in Toronto, that was no mere throwaway line. The Wolf Pack, by the way, have won three playoff rounds the past 12 years and have failed to qualify for the postseason the last three years.

But unless Gorton could entice a projected bottom-feeder to yield its first-rounder (keep dreaming), the objective in a hypothetical Hayes trade should be to bring back a player/players of comparable NHL present and future value. And that is considerable. If Hayes wasn’t the Rangers’ best player from start to finish last season, he was sure close.

The Blueshirts need help and muscle on the wing. They have a crying need for help on the right side of the defense. The Bruins, who went all in on Tavares, could be tempted to bring No. 13 home. Would Jake DeBrusk be off-limits here?

The price for Hayes was established, if not re-established, by the marketplace. Now Gorton must decide whether to meet that market price or to market one of his very best players. The clock has already begun to tick.

The Blueshirts have checked in with the Maple Leafs on former Islander fourth-line hitman Matt Martin.

Martin dressed for only three of Toronto’s final 33 games and did not make it into the lineup for the seven-game, first-round loss to Boston. He played 9:00 or more in 10 of his 50 outings. The original thought was that the Maple Leafs would have to add a sweetener in the form of a draft pick in order to find a landing place for the 29-year-old who carries a $2.5 million cap hit for the next two seasons. But, no.

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Actually, we’re told, there is a market for Martin, who once combined with Casey Cizikas and Cal Clutterbuck on a fourth unit that regularly ran roughshod over the Rangers. The reason, even in this age of disappearing enforcer-types, is that after being paid his $1.5 million signing bonus by the Maple Leafs, Martin will be owed just $750,000 this year and $1.75 million next season. Signing bonuses generally come due on July 1, but there are exceptions.

Martin is a popular player, the veritable good-in-the-room guy. You may have heard that the Rangers, thin on the wing, can use some starch. But it seems a stretch that Gorton would trade a usable player or draft pick to acquire him.

Fredrik Claesson, the 25-year-old defenseman who signed a one-year, $700,000 deal with the Rangers on Sunday after the Senators declined to offer a $715,000 qualifier, spent a majority of the time on Erik Karlsson’s left side last season. But the lefty has played the right.

He joins Brendan Smith and John Gilmour (who played 13 games on his natural side and 14 on the off-side last year) and Sean Day as lefties whom coach David Quinn could shift if it becomes necessary.

“Ideally, you want to have righties. It’s much more difficult on the pivot and on neutral-zone transition for a guy playing his off-side,” Quinn said during last week’s prospect camp. “But you don’t always live in an ideal world. If the need arises, it’s important to have guys who are comfortable on their off-side.”

Quinn is en route to Sweden, where he will meet with H enrik Lundqvist. Lundqvist was at Wimbledon on Monday. It might be wise for the King not to stand up the coach.