from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

The trade deadline-driven contract negotiations with Dan Girardi and Ryan Callahan were instructive to Marc Staal, who could be in the very same position as an impending free agent next year but sure isn’t savoring the possibility.

“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 on Sunday following the Rangers’ buttoned-down 3-0 victory over the Red Wings at the Garden.

“You can say all you want that it’s not on your mind and it’s not a distraction, but it’s something that has to weigh on you,” No. 18 said. “I know my brother, Jordan, went through a lot of that early on in a season when he was in Pittsburgh and basically said, ‘Enough of that.’

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

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