BUFFALO — Derek Who?

While a noted national sports publication has named some baseball player called Derek Jeter as Sportsman of the Year, our selection didn’t establish a hallowed franchise record and he didn’t win a championship.

All Markus Naslund did this year following his one season on Broadway was set a standard of integrity so high that it cannot and must not be overlooked, perhaps now more than ever in a culture of celebrity where it seems everything can be bought and everyone can be bought off and paid for.

Naslund scored 24 goals last year after signing a two-year, $8 million free agent contract with the Blueshirts, under which he earned $5M in 2008-09 and was due to receive $3M this year. But when the season ended, the 35-year-old winger (who turned 36 at the end of July) recognized he could no longer play up to the elite level he had established for himself over more than a decade in Vancouver.

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And so, within 48 hours of the Rangers’ playoff elimination, Naslund told GM Glen Sather, head coach John Tortorella and his teammates that he had played his last game, that he was going to retire even with the year remaining on his contract.

Wanting to get younger and faster, neither of which were in No. 91’s power to accomplish, the Rangers would have bought out Naslund’s contract for this season. Under terms of the collective bargaining agreement, Naslund was guaranteed $2M in a buyout; $2M he would have received simply by remaining silent and deferring announcement of his retirement until the transaction has been completed.

But Naslund did not remain silent. He announced his retirement on May 5, thus forfeiting the $2M while saving the Rangers cap space for this season and next. He announced his retirement through a statement released by the team and simply returned home, to Sweden, where he would embark on his post-hockey career life.

Not quite, though, because when his great friend Peter Forsberg declared last month that he would play this season for MODO in the Swedish Elite League, Naslund came out of retirement to join him. And because MODO is in financial trouble, Naslund and Forsberg both are playing for free to help the cause.

Naslund was not a great player by the time he arrived on Broadway. He was more than that.

And he is Slap Shots’ Sportsman of the Year.

* Let’s get this straight: there is no need for Alex Ovechkin, the NHL’s most compelling the player, to change the way he attacks the game or the puck.

There is no reason for Ovechkin to change the way he plays anymore than there was a need for the ferocious Mark Messier to change, the fearsome Eric Lindros to change (except for carrying the puck with his head down, but that’s a different matter), and the feared Forsberg to alter his game back in the day when the then Colorado center would allow defensemen to win races for pucks so he could then batter them into the wall and then gain possession.

But.

But there is a need for the NHL to change its approach and discipline Ovechkin when and if necessary, just as the league would discipline any player whose recklessness causes injuries to opponents.

Which, of course, means that as repeat offender Matt Cooke received the very same and meager two-game sentence for delivering a head shot to Artem Anisimov last Saturday, only 10 months after getting two games for his hit to the head of Matt Walker, Ovechkin has nothing to worry about.

* Ever since Feb. 17, 1979, the day the great Bernie Parent was poked in the eye by a stick and thus forced into retirement, the Flyers have been blind to the necessity of having a big-time goaltender in order to actually win something.

Since the ’97 choking situation of the sweep by Detroit in the Cup Final, the Flyers have trotted out Ron Hextall, Garth Snow, Sean Burke, John Vanbiesbrouck (the on-the-cheap free agent signing when both Mike Richter and Curtis Joseph were on the market during the summer of 1998), Brian Boucher, Roman Cechmanek, Robert Esche, Jeff Hackett, Antero Niittymaki, Marty Biron and now Ray Emery as their No. 1 netminders.

While, by the way, the East’s preeminent team, New Jersey, has had one No. 1 in Martin Brodeur and the West’s preeminent team, Detroit, has had three in Mike Vernon, Chris Osgood, Dom Hasek and Cujo.

* All right, who will the Yanks have in the middle between Zach Parise and Jamie Langenbrunner when Our Boys compete in the Olympics?

larry.brooks@nypost.com

