Freddie Sjostrom is apparently more clearheaded than we are — he is not seeking a big raise over last year’s $800,000 salary, he is actually ready to accept a cut to $650,000 in exchange for a two-year deal, with negotiations…

The NHL schedule comes out today, probably around noon. I remember last year at this time I was mostly interested in how the Rangers’ schedule was going to conflict with the birth of my second son (Will was born Jan. 4, a few hours after the Rangers were losing to Markus Naslund and the Canucks).

This [...]

A restricted free agent without salary arbitration rights, Nigel Dawes had one way and one way only to cash in this summer, and that was by attracting an offer sheet. He didn’t get one. Instead, the 23-year-old left wing who scored 14 goals in 61…

Mark your calendar. Cancel that vacation (actually, please don’t cancel that vacation. I can’t handle that kind of pressure).  We’re coming back with another live chat here on Friday at 11 a.m. We probably won’t do one every week like this all summer, but there’s enough to go around for this week, and besides, there’s [...]

Gary Bettman said today the NHL will continue discussions with the Yankees and New York to perhaps bring an outdoor game to the new Yankee Stadium that opens next year. Bettman announced that the 2009 Winter Classic will be played at Wrigley Field…

Fact: Blue Notes reports that “Freddie Sjostrom’s qualifying offer was extended past yesterday’s 5 p.m. deadline to Aug. 4. ‘We’re still negotiating,’ Sjostrom said in an email late yesterday.” Opinion: Uh, excuse me — what is there to negotiate? Freddie…

The Rangers have re-signed Nigel Dawes. I’m awaiting word on terms…

The Rangers now have the cap space to re-sign Brendan Shanahan.

Which leaves them with a far more complicated question: Do they want to? And then there’s this: If they don’t want to, doesn’t Glen Sather owe one of the game’s greats - and a remarkable performer/ambassador for the Rangers the last two seasons - a quick notification so he can make other plans for 2008-09?

The club will announce sometime today that it has re-signed Nigel Dawes to a one-year contract in the $600,000 range. That and the fact that at least one of the bottom-six-type forwards currently under contract can’t be on the team when the season starts means the Rangers will be at least $1 million under the Salary Cap.

If that wouldn’t be enough to re-sign Shanahan, surely the threshold would be reached via the extra $1 million or so that would be cleared by moving out another forward to make room for Shanahan on the roster.

But where would Shanahan play? And where could he play?

While I have no doubt of Shanahan’s sincerity about being willing to play any role Tom Renney would want - and his career-long ability to adapt his game to changing styles and tactics - does it serve him or the team to have a 600-goal-scorer deployed as a third- or fourth-liner and special teams specialist?

Markus Naslund and Nikolai Zherdev are cemented into two of the top-six forward spots. The Rangers are fairly convinced that they turned Petr Prucha from a 30-goal scorer into a non-factor - and that the signing of Shanahan two summers ago was the tipping point - and that Prucha could resume being a productive forward if just given the ice time and power-play role.

Ryan Callahan is a given whose abrasiveness will be counted on even more with Sean Avery gone. And Dawes is nothing if not an offensive-minded forward. That’s seven wingers who figure to do best if assigned to one of the top two lines - one more than can play on either of the top two lines on any given night.

Throw in centers Scott Gomez, Chris Drury and Brandon Dubinsky and you’ve got eight roster locks up front. Aaron Voros and Colton Orr are just about locks as well. And either Blair Betts is lock No. 11 or Artem Anisimov will beat him out at training camp for that fourth-line center spot.

It is difficult to imagine that not one from among Fredrik Sjostrom, Patrick Rissmiller, Dan Fritsche and Lauri Korpikoski will be on the opening night roster. So that’s 12 or 13 forwards.

While it might seem like a no-brainer to replace any or all of them with a player of Shanahan’s eye-popping accomplishments and continued ability to perform in the clutch both on the ice and in the dressing room - not to mention in the boardroom when players and owners are at one another’s throats, and on the phone when prospective free agents need to be told how wonderful playing for the Rangers is - Sather has yet to make that move. Which at least suggests that Rangers’ brass doesn’t consider re-signing Shanahan a no-brainer at all.

I’ve never been among those who believed the club needed to be wrested from the charismatic clutches of Jagr and Shanahan and turned over to Gomez, Drury and Co. And, having had at least one all-timer in the dressing room every day of the 14 years I’ve been covering the Rangers - from Messier and Leetch to Gretzy and Jagr and Shanahan (with plenty of extremely honorable mentions such as Richter and Graves and Lowe and Bure and Lindros) - I don’t know if I like the idea of walking in there without knowing somebody will say something worthy of being recorded for posterity.

The only thing I know for sure is that Brendan Shanahan deserves an answer now. Are the Rangers bringing him back or not? He’s one of the few in a game that rightfully is all about unfeeling meritocracy who deserves that consideration.

The Blackhawks and Red Wings will indeed meet at Wrigley Field on Jan. 1. No truth to the rumor that Steve Bartman will drop the ceremonial first puck.

As for the NHL schedule, you’ll have to wait another day. It comes out tomorrow. And sadly, the Rangers say they don’t yet have information on how to [...]

By JAY GREENBERG The Islanders, steady losers of $20 million a year and of their presence in the New York media, don’t have the means or the cache as a franchise to land a difference-maker free agent. So, with a…