SUNRISE, Fla. — It may sound like a fish story, but if so, then Glen Sather sure has come up with a whopper.

The Rangers’ GM told Slap Shots on Thursday that he “shook hands” on a trade last year that would have brought Steven Stamkos from Tampa Bay to New York less than halfway through the brilliant 20-year-old center’s rookie season.

We reported last year that the Lightning had dangled Stamkos through the early months of the season, during which the first-overall selection in the 2008 Entry Draft struggled badly, getting two goals (with five assists) in his first 21 games. There were questions in the organization about his readiness for the NHL.

The Rangers started working on the Tampa house-of-cards ownership during the teams’ trip to Prague, where the clubs opened the 2008-09 regular season with a pair of games. Sather got the ear of co-owner Len Barrie, a former NHL player. Conversations continued after the clubs returned to North America.

By the time the Blueshirts visited Tampa on Thanksgiving of 2008, the talks had become serious. Barrie was asking to choose two or three from a wish list that featured Michael Del Zotto, Evgeny Grachev, Ryan Callahan, Brandon Dubinsky and Dan Girardi.

The deal, according to Sather, was struck. The Rangers would be getting Stamkos, who has scored 46 goals thus far this season, tied for second in the NHL with Alex Ovechkin and just one behind Sidney Crosby in the race for the Rocket Richard Trophy.

Oh, no, they wouldn’t.

“How close did we come?” Sather asked rhetorically, repeating the question we posed to him as the Rangers practiced in Tampa on Thursday. “We shook hands on it, that’s how close.

“I’d been on it since Europe. I had an agreement with Len Barrie. I asked him if he had the authority to make the trade, and he assured me that he did, because he was an owner.

“But the next day, I found out that he didn’t. He went to run the deal by [GM] Brian Lawton, who wanted no part of it. As I understood it, the way it was told to me, Barrie was still going to make the deal, but then he was told that he couldn’t unless he got the approval of [co-owner] Oren Koules.

“Koules shot it down,” said Sather. “That was the end of it.”

Koules and Barrie further could not agree on a trade last June that would have sent Vincent Lecavalier and his massive contract to Montreal in exchange for a package featuring goaltender Carey Price. Dysfunction in that case benefited Sather, for it allowed him to then move Scott Gomez to the Canadiens.

That Lightning ownership is gone. So is the opportunity to trade for Stamkos.

“We had him,” Sather said. “Well, I thought we did.”

There is something foul in Philadelphia far beyond the goaltending fiasco that has become the focal point of the NHL’s most disappointing team.

We’re not there on a day-to-day basis, so we can’t claim first-hand knowledge, but when two league GMs were asked what they perceived to be the problem, neither hesitated.

“Pronger,” each said, referring to Chris Pronger, the defenseman who has a reputation for splitting locker rooms as well as heads.

If GM Paul Holmgren manages to keep his job, it won’t be because of the acquisition of Pronger, who next season begins a seven-year, over-35 contract extension at an annual cap hit of $4.9 million that runs through 2016-17.

Well, at least until the next amnesty buyout period.

As Pronger was 34 when he signed the extension, the Flyers were unaware that it would be considered an over-35 contract. But as Pronger turned 35 this year, on the final season of his pre-existing contract, the CBA clause kicked in.

If Holmgren gets kicked out, that will be part of the reason.

Daniel Carcillo, a four-time offender, gets a two-game suspension for a crosscheck to David Clarkson‘s face, and isn’t everyone thrilled to see the NHL cracking down on repeat offenders?

Speaking of which, Matt Cooke is an unrestricted free agent this summer. What team is going to want to pick up that load of baggage?

And, further, assuming that he finds an employer, will his new teammates feel compelled to rush to his defense when the Bruins, as they inevitably will, seek to extract their pound of flesh?

The play in Vancouver on Tuesday where the Canucks’ Ryan Kesler was given a major and game misconduct for driving Phoenix’s Derek Morris into the boards should serve as Exhibit A as to what is not a penalty of any kind, but rather an example of a player attempting to draw a penalty by turning his back on a checker.

Morris, playing the puck near the right half-wall in his own end, took a quick glance to his left, saw Kesler coming, then turned his back on the checker before jumping into the boards after the hit had been delivered in order to draw a penalty.

Talk about a lack of respect for the game.

So I received an e-mail on Friday alerting me that Rick Tocchet is following me on Twitter.

I bet it isn’t really him.

larry.brooks@nypost.com

