Blueshirts must act quick on Hayes’ future in current market

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 twoyear, $8 million deal. The Rangers typically do not deal with their Group IIs 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