Veteran Staal ready to earn his keep on Blueshirts roster

Marc Staal has been in the NHL long enough to have seen this coming, albeit maybe not in such explicit terms.

The Rangers’ veteran defenseman was put on notice when coach Alain Vigneault said Thursday that Staal would be fighting for a spot on the roster this training camp. Staal, 30, is going into his 11th season wearing the Blueshirt. After some injuries and some down years, he wasn’t ex- actly taken aback by his coach’s comments.

“It’s his opinion,” Staal said Friday, when the team had on-ice testing at the practice facility in Tarrytown before the first real practice Saturday. “I think this is my 11th season now. I’m not naive. I don’t take anything for granted. I’ve come into camp with the mindset every year, you have to earn your minutes. So it doesn’t change my mindset going forward.

“I’ve been a Ranger a long time, and I plan on being a Ranger for a lot more years. I’m excited to get started and help this team win some games.”

The defense was revamped this summer by general manager Jeff Gorton, starting when he bought out Staal’s good friend and longtime teammate, Dan Girardi. They then signed the offense-minded Kevin Shatten- kirk, and there are a handful of young defensemen pushing for roster spots, leaving Staal with the need to earn his place on the roster.

“Marc has been a good player in this league for a long time,” Gorton said. “He can defend the best players in the league. There’s a lot of things he can do for us. I don’t think it’s anything different for Marc. He’s come in. He’s going to try to play well and get as much ice time as he can.”

➤ There was a scary moment during Friday’s onice testing when Chris Kreider lost an edge and went sliding into the boards legs first. He was slow getting up and tried to give it another go, but had to leave the ice.

He did return to finish his testing with the next group and laughed as he was leaving the ice.

“Not fun to do the testing one and a half times,” he said.

Gorton confirmed there wasn’t any concern, saying: “He’s fine.”

➤ Henrik Lundqvist took some confidence from winning the World Championship with his brother, Joel Lundqvist, and Team Sweden after the Rangers lost to the Senators in the second round of the playoffs.

“It made a pretty big impact on how I felt this summer,” Lundqvist said.

“Not only because I ended on a high note, but I did it with my brother. It was a dream come true for me and my brother to do that.”