Derick Brassard celebrates a goal with teammates Benoit Pouliot and Ryan McDonagh. His overtime winner allowed the Rangers to prevail over the Penguins in Game 1 3-2.
AP Photos/Gene J. Puskar

A day before their scheduled arbitration hearing, the Rangers and Derick Brassard beat the clock by reaching agreement on a new five-year contract worth a reported $25 million. New York Post beat writer Larry Brooks broke the story in a tweet.

Honestly, I hate the deal. Not because Brassard isn’t worth it but rather due to the term which includes an all too predictable no-trade clause. Sure. He’s been a good player since coming over as part of the Marian Gaborik deal on April 3, 2013. The 26-year old center followed up a strong postseason in which he led the Rangers with 12 points (2-10-12) by anchoring the third line comprised of Mats Zuccarello and Benoit Pouliot. After a slow start, the trio became Alain Vigneault’s most consistent scoring line. Without them, the club doesn’t reach the Stanley Cup Final.

In his seventh season, Brassard set personal bests in games played (81), goals (18), power play goals (7), power play points (18) and game-winners (4). He tallied 18 goals and 27 assists for 45 points. The second highest total of his career. The former Columbus ’06 first round pick had another good playoffs notching six goals and six helpers with a plus-four rating. He was instrumental during the team’s second round comeback against the Pens scoring and setting up big goals to climb out of a 3-1 series deficit.

This past year, he earned $3.7 million. A restricted free agent, Brassard was seeking in the neighborhood of $5 million. Rather than let him go to arbitration and become a potential unrestricted free agent next summer, Glen Sather opted to lock him up. The positive is that he won’t have to worry about Brassard and can turn his attention to Marc Staal, Mats Zuccarello and Derek Stepan, who should be in line for $6 million per year when his bridge deal expires in 2015. Stepan is the club’s number one center. With Ryan O’Reilly and the Avalanche settling on two years, $12 million his price has been set.

If you’re asking me point blank, I don’t think he’s worth that money. However, in what can best be described as a crazy market, Stepan will get paid. Under the old rules, I feel he’s worth $4 million. But he’ll make $3.85 million in 2014-15. At 24, he enters his fifth year. Coming off a postseason that saw him post five goals and 10 assists tying Martin St. Louis for second in team scoring, the sky’s the limit. It’ll come with a lot of expectations and a price. It would be nice to see him improve on faceoffs.

From the looks of it, the Blueshirts will have a combined $11 million tied up in their top two centers over the long haul. The question is where does that leave Staal and Zuccarello? Don’t forget St. Louis will also be in his final year. Who knows what he’ll decide. By next summer, he’ll be 40. Even with Sather gambling on Brassard, he’s faced with more questions surrounding the club’s future. This year’s cap is $69 million. He has enough room to re-sign John Moore with approximately $4 million left. How much will the cap increase for ’15-16? That will go a long way to deciding on which players stay.

Carl Hagelin also is restricted next summer. In other words, it’s time to find out about some of their prospects. They can’t keep spending. It’s now a matter of retaining key pieces to remain competitive and see which kids are capable of contributing. Is J.T. Miller ready or has he been mishandled by an organization that signed him after one year of junior? He’s already proven capable of performing in the AHL going 15-27-42 in 41 games for the Wolf Pack. He still must prove himself under Vigneault, who critiqued him. There’s also Oscar Lindberg, Jesper Fast, Danny Kristo and Ryan Bourque who all could be in play this September.

Personally, I don’t like where the league’s headed. The more you see irresponsible GMs throw money around like wildfire, the nuttier it’ll be. Zuccarello got over a 300 percent raise and was praised for taking less. At $3.5 million, it’s probably the right figure. But don’t forget he got it off one year. In the old days, you had to earn it. It just seems more and more, executives are gambling. There’s no right or wrong answer here. I can’t imagine what the market will become by 2021-22. I would rather not.