Nikolai Zherdev’s arbitration figure has come in at $3.9 million, up three-quarters of a million dollars from the Rangers’ qualifying offer. So I’m sticking with he’s a goner.

The Rangers have 48 hours to decide on that - whether to accept the offer or let Zherdev walk into unrestricted free agency. More accurately, perhaps, they have another 48 hours to find a trading partner who likes Zherdev at $3.9 million so that they would get something in return for letting the skilled 24-year-old walk. If the Rangers are intent on letting him go, it wouldn’t take much of an offer to secure a trade. Which would be one reason the Rangers are reserving comment until it plays out.

Zherdev, who scored 23 goals and 58 points in 2008-09 - but none vs. Washington in the seven-game playoff series - was in and out of it with disturbing frequency and didn’t exactly take flight when John Tortorella arrived. Now, a nice arbitration hearing in which teams arguing for lower salaries stress all of a player’s negatives, surely can’t leave either party feeling great about the other right now.

The aribtrator today awarded Nik Zherdev $3.9 million salary for 2009-10.

The Rangers have until noon Tuesday to decide to accept the award or walk away and make Zherdev an unrestricted free agent.

They could theoretically accept the award and trad…

Starved for something about the Rangers?

Well, Stan Fischler had this chat with John Tortorella, posted on MSG.com Friday.

You can read it here.

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My longtime friend, John Halligan—who worked for the Rangers for 24 years, including many of those seasons while I was covering the team—along with Adam Raider and Russ Cohen, have a new book coming out, and it looks like one of those must-…