from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

Lundqvist, who will turn 32 in early March, characterized the talks between his camp and management as in, “the early stages.” The fact is that there has been little, if any, bargaining between the parties. The goaltender is entering the final season of the six-year, $41.25 million contract he signed in February of 2008.

His current $6.875 million cap hit is third among NHL goaltenders behind Nashville’s Pekka Rinne and Boston’s Tuukka Rask, both of whom are in at $7 million per. Lundqvist is 24th in the league in average salary and second on the Rangers behind Rick Nash’s $7.8 million per. It is likely that the King will earn between $8.25 and $9.5 million on an eight-year max contract.

But in order to reach an agreement, the parties will have to do some actual negotiating. Lundqvist said that he will decide at the end of training camp whether to allow talks to continue during the season.

“Ideally, of course it would be nice to have everything in place by the time the season starts [on Oct. 3], but at the same time, it’s not a must,” Lundqvist said. “My agent [Don Meehan] is going to be handling it all until I have to be involved at the end, so I am going to be able to focus mentally on playing without the contract being a distraction.

“I have kind of downplayed this since the end of last season because I didn’t want to put pressure on myself or the Rangers to have it done by now. The most important thing is that we’re talking,” said the goaltender.

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