Staple: Moulson a win-win all around

Matt Moulson’s new three-year, $9.4-million contract with the Islanders is a good deal. For just about everyone in hockey. It’s good for Moulson, who has needed just a year and a half to transform from failed Kings prospect to no-doubt top-line wing on the Island. He’ll be making $3.9 million in 2013-14. That’s big-league money for a guy who was making a little more than $50,000 in 2008-09.

It’s good for the Islanders and general manager Garth Snow, clearly, since they have a solid goal-scorer and close friend of John Tavares locked up for the long term. Tavares, whose entry-level deal expires after next season, won’t stay because Moulson is here.

But it can’t hurt.

It’s also a good deal for the NHL. A good player wants to be an Islander; hopefully, this is a step toward what Moulson told Newsday this week, the day when players around the league will realize that the Islanders are not the laughingstock they’re made out to be.

“I think there are some things people don’t know about this team,” Moulson said. “I’ve told my agent and other people around the league about how we’re treated, how they treat our families. Mr. Wang and Garth are involved in everything and that filters down to everyone on the team.”

Rangers seek defense

Glen Sather is still shopping around for a veteran defenseman, preferably one with some offensive skills, and possibly a center before the Feb. 28 trade deadline.

SEE PHOTOSTop 10 Islanders of all-time

A report out this week said the Thrashers would be willing to move defenseman Ron Hainsey and forwards Fredrik Modin and Nik Antropov.

There’s the obvious lack of fit with Antropov, who was a trade-deadline acquisition right after John Tortorella was hired two years ago and still has two years and a $4.06-million cap hit left on his deal, and with Modin, who won a Stanley Cup with Tortorella in Tampa but is 36 and slowed by injuries.

Hainsey is intriguing, but not with two years at a $4.5-million cap hit remaining. When the Rangers return to action Tuesday, Dan Girardi will slide back into the lineup and the ever-improving Ryan McDonagh will play second pair with fellow rookie Michael Sauer.

If those three, with All-Star Marc Staal, can hold the fort, the Rangers might not be doing any serious shopping.

Bettman: ‘No one’s moving’

With word that Quebec City is still in need of more time to secure financing for its $400-million hockey arena — and that the Quebec nationalist party, Bloc Quebecois, has publicly requested $175 million in federal financing from the Canadian government — NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is holding fast to the “no one’s moving” stance he’s had for many years.

“When there’s all this speculation — most of which isn’t based on anything — I get concerned because I don’t want our fans to be let on,” Bettman said during a news conference in Raleigh on Thursday. “As I said, we’re not planning to expand, we’re not planning to relocate.

“If something were to change, I’ve been on record as saying we’d be silly not to take a good hard look at places we’ve been if situations have changed since we were last there.”

Tracking Star MVPs

All-Star MVPs get a car, but they’re not assured of much else when their teams’ seasons resume. Only twice since 1982 — Rangers goaltender Mike Richter (1994) and Isles winger Mike Bossy (1982) — has the All-Star MVP gone on to win a Stanley Cup the same season.

The the last eight All-Star MVPs, and what their teams did:

2009 — Alex Kovalev, Canadiens; lost first round
2008 — Eric Staal, Hurricanes; missed playoffs
2007 — Danny Briere, Sabres; lost, Eastern Conference finals
2004 — Joe Sakic, Avalanche; lost, Western Conference semifinals
2003 — Dany Heatley, Thrashers; missed playoffs
2002 — Eric Daze, Hawks; lost first round
2001 — Bill Guerin, Bruins; missed playoffs
2000 — Pavel Bure, Panthers; lost first round