Maybe Ryan Haggerty will be the next coming of Rod Gilbert, who is pretty much the only explosive goal-scorer on the wing developed by the Rangers over the past six decades, and the organization does need to compensate for the first-round draft choices it sent away for Rick Nash and Martin St. Louis. Being aggressive in the college free-agent market represents a way to do that.

But the accommodation the organization made in order to sign the 21-year-old Haggerty out of RPI last week — guaranteeing him a spot on the NHL roster for the remainder of the season — sure seems like a dangerous precedent to set.

What’s next, signing a free agent — NHL, college, or otherwise — to a contract that includes the stipulation of first-power-play ice time?

There is nothing inappropriate about the Rangers agreeing to accelerate the cycle on Haggerty’s NHL arbitration and free-agent clocks by allowing him to burn the first season of his three-year entry-level deal. That is part of business.

But a guarantee not to send Haggerty to Hartford — even if that’s where the young wing belongs and, more likely than not, where he would benefit from playing pro hockey for the remainder of the Wolf Pack schedule rather than skating in practice with the Rangers? It seems wrong.

True enough, there is no NHL roster limit the rest of the year, so Haggerty isn’t taking someone else’s spot. And one would presume if a top-nine spot opens down the stretch, it would be filled by a player on merit and not with a nifty contract perk.

But still, just about a week after general manager Glen Sather all but ridiculed Ryan Callahan’s request for a no-trade clause in the contract extension he was seeking (“I know it’s nice for the players to have security, but no-trade, no-yell-at is a tough deal”), this same general manager gave a 21-year-old college player a no-send-down clause for the remainder of the year.

J.T. Miller has been up and down. Chris Kreider went up and down. Ryan McDonagh spent his first pro half-season in the AHL. Mats Zuccarello, a free agent pursued by a number of NHL teams, was sure allowed to be sent to the minors — which he was, and more than once.

Maybe Haggerty, who will begin skating with the Rangers on Monday, is NHL-ready. Maybe he can earn the opportunity to get into the lineup. Maybe he can prove in a few practices that he should leapfrog Miller on the organizational depth chart.

Maybe if Haggerty gets in he can become a latter-day Jack Egers — the 21-year-old big shot on the wing who provided instant offense for the 1969-70 Rangers after coming up from Omaha of the CHL scoring three goals in six games as a 21-year-old in that historic playoff race.

Maybe Haggerty will earn his keep. But even if he does not, the Rangers have to keep him. Something seems out of focus with that picture.

Yes, everyone wants to get the correct calls on the ice. But instead of expanding video review that would undoubtedly add 10-15 minutes of standing around during games waiting for officials to get it right (or, as is obvious with the current kicked-in rule, get it right a little bit more of the time) the NHL’s priority should be improving the standard of officiating around the league so the referees actually get it right the first time.

This idea hatched at the GM’s meeting of essentially giving teams free faceoff victories by moving a violator at the dots back 12-18 inches rather than removing him from the draw is about as absurd as it gets, given the often arbitrary nature of the way certain linesmen drop the puck.

Henrik Lundqvist was very good in the playoffs two years ago in taking the Rangers to the conference finals, and he has been the backbone of the team from the moment his salary started to be paid in U.S. dollars rather than Swedish krona. But until he has a tournament equal to the ones fashioned by Mike Richter in 1994 and 1997, the King doesn’t get to wear the franchise’s goaltending crown.

There aren’t five players in the NHL who have been more valuable to their teams this season than Jaromir Jagr has been for the Devils. … Yes, they changed the rules in the middle of the game on Mike Gillis in Vancouver in regard to the cap recapture function of the CBA that penalizes teams for previously registered front-loaded contracts, and thus left the GM with far fewer options regarding Roberto Luongo. But it nevertheless is all but impossible to explain how Tampa Bay GM Steve Yzerman got more back for Martin St. Louis than Vancouver did for Luongo and Cory Schneider, combined.

The NHL, the Stars and the Blue Jackets got it all right with their response to the Rich Peverley medical emergency last week, because sometimes the show must not go on.

Zach Parise, who makes his initial visit to New Jersey on Thursday since leaving the Devils and their captaincy to go home to the Wild as a free agent during the summer of 2012, told us he made a bet with one of his teammates on whether he would get a pregame video tribute at the Rock.

No spoilers here on which side he took.