If Derek Stepan’s postseason contract negotiations require arbitration to settle the matter, then a third party will establish the (still only) 24-year-old center’s annual value to the Rangers at a seven-figure price that would start with a “6” and go from there.

But as the defending and desperate Stanley Cup champion Kings become the latest marquee team to attempt to measure up to the Blueshirts, on Tuesday at the Garden, it doesn’t take an arbitrator to recognize Stepan’s immense worth on the ice to his team, especially so when he is clicking with the puck on his stick.

Everyone knows. The Rangers had been winning consistently even with Stepan mired in his worst goal-scoring drought since becoming a top-six center in his sophomore 2011-12 season and the longest point-scoring famine of his career. Fact is, they’ve been winning consistently since Dec. 8, 35-8-3 beginning that night.

But as Stepan went 14 straight without scoring and 12 straight without a point, essentially every match turned into a 2-1 taffy pull, with the Rangers having scored a total of 13 goals in eight games leading into Sunday’s showdown against the Ducks.

But on Sunday, Stepan not only demonstrated an attack mentality, not only orchestrated, he pulled the trigger, and in doing so detonated the Blueshirts’ 7-2 rout of Anaheim that propelled them into first place overall in the NHL.

There are ways Stepan contributes on a consistent basis aside from the score sheet — notably as the matchup center against every other top line in the league as utilized by coach Alain Vigneault and on the penalty kill — but production isn’t an afterthought, either. The Rangers need Stepan to be in the, well, in the middle of the offense.

“I felt I was doing good things without the puck and in our end, but I wasn’t doing much with the puck,” Stepan said. “It wasn’t easy for me. There were times when it was very, very difficult.

“I wanted to contribute offensively in the worst way.”

That he did for that stretch of a dozen games.

But then against Anaheim, he contributed offensively in the best way. He got an assist on the opening goal at 1:24 by getting a piece of Ryan McDonagh’s drive from the left point that sneaked through Frederik Andersen before Chris Kreider swept the puck home from the crease. He blasted a left-point power-play slap shot past Andersen on the short side for a 2-1 lead at 5:43. And his left wing wrist shot off a turnover that beat relief netminder John Gibson at 16:01 of the second extended the lead to a comfortable 5-2.

“I don’t have an explanation for it, but for whatever reason I go through stretches like this,” Stepan said. “When it comes it comes, and when it goes, it goes.”

Stepan isn’t alone on the team in falling into a pass-first mentality. It may be a manifestation of the Rangers’ unselfishness, but there are far too many situations in which everybody on the ice seems committed to passing the puck into the net.

Shoot the puck, Barry, as the late, great Bill Chadwick would say about Big Beck. Shoot the puck, Step, The Big Whistle — and undoubtedly, Vigneault — would admonish Stepan, who did in fact get off seven attempts (and five shots) against the Ducks.

“I did have more of that mentality where I was looking for the good shot,” he said.

Stepan has 46 points (13-33) in 57 games, after missing the first 12 with the broken leg he sustained in training camp, and a couple of more along the way. The Rangers without him in the lineup: 6-6-2. With him: 40-12-5.

The one-time Wisconsin Badger’s .81 points-per actually exceeds both the career average of .67 per with which he entered the year and his .72 points-per the past three years as a top-six staple. So it’s not as if it has been a bust season offensively for No. 21, who, by the way is the fourth senior member of the team behind Henrik Lundqvist, Dan Girardi and Marc Staal.

So figure Stepan as essentially a 60-point player. In this NHL, given the comparables, that’s going to be worth at least $6 million on a two-year arbitration award that would take him to unrestricted free agency. Whether the parties will be able to reach an agreement on a six- or seven-year deal for which Stepan might take a lower annual average value in exchange for security remains to be seen.

But dollars aside, everyone on Sunday could see Stepan’s value to the Rangers, who are a much more formidable team when he is producing with the puck on the stick.