Let’s make it clear: Just because Glen Sather acknowledged in an email exchange on Friday with The Post he is undecided about continuing his dual role as Rangers president-general manager, that doesn’t necessarily mean he will, in fact, step down as GM.

Sather, who will turn 72 in September, could decide to give it another go directing the team he has built into a perennial contender that has fallen short of capturing the Stanley Cup, despite reaching the conference finals in three of the last four years.

But it is both newsworthy and noteworthy this is the first time Sather has acknowledged he is considering a change in his status. Previously, Sather has responded unambiguously in refuting suggestions he would divest himself of the GM’s title and responsibilities.

This time, though — in the wake of the bitterly disappointing 2-0 defeat to the Lightning in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final at the Garden on May 29 that prevented the Presidents’ Trophy winners from advancing to the Stanley Cup final for a second consecutive year — it’s not so, as reported exclusively Friday on nypost.com.

“Sorry, I don’t have anything to tell you,” Sather responded to an email from The Post asking whether he would in fact return for his 16th year as the Blueshirts’ GM. He then replied “OK” when asked if it would be accurate to portray him as undecided about his future.

The Rangers already have conducted their pro player personnel meetings. The pre-draft meetings will be held in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., early in the week preceding the June 26-27 draft at the Panthers’ arena, so while Sather is not operating under a formal timetable, it would behoove the club to have its 2015-16 general manager in place by that time.

The decision will be Sather’s alone. He is not being pushed by Garden CEO Jim Dolan, who declined on Friday to comment on The Post’s report, and who often has acknowledged Sather is operating under a “lifetime contract” as GM.

But Sather, who left New York following the club’s exit meetings early this week for his summer home in La Quinta, Calif., may not want that “lifetime” contract applied literally.

Having conquered prostate cancer, with which he was diagnosed two years ago, the Last Lion of Winter — who began his pro hockey career as an 18-year-old winger in the Bruins’ organization in 1965-66 — has upon occasion the last couple of years talked wistfully about having more time to travel and spend with his wife, Ann, while it’s there to enjoy.

If Sather does indeed relinquish the GM post, assistant GM Jeff Gorton would be the overwhelming favorite to take over after serving the past four years as Slats’ right-hand man, during which he has assumed increased day-to-day responsibility within the hockey department.

Indeed, The Post has learned Sather this week denied for a second time the Maple Leafs’ request to speak to Gorton about the club’s vacant GM position just as Sather denied the Bruins’ request to speak to Gorton about their since-filled vacancy. Gorton has at least one more year remaining on his contract.

The final call on a successor would, of course, be Dolan’s, though there would seem little time (and even less reason) to conduct a wide-ranging search if Sather does indeed step away.

If Dolan elects to open the process, high-profile candidates would include Wayne Gretzky; Mark Messier; current Blue Jackets president John Davidson; and current Coyotes GM Don Maloney, who previously worked as Sather’s assistant.

That, of course, is assuming the seat isn’t reserved for Isiah Thomas.

Again, though, the Rangers would seem to have their line of succession in place, with the universally respected Gorton, who is entering his ninth year with the Rangers after 15 years in the Bruins’ front office, poised to take control.

Sather has built a perennial contender, the Blueshirts having reached the conference finals in three of the last four seasons and the Cup final last year. The Rangers have won eight playoff series the past four years, more than any team in the league other than the Kings (10) and the Blackhawks (nine and counting). They have qualified for the playoffs in nine of the 10 years of the salary cap era that began in 2005-06 after missing the first four years of Sather’s regime that began on June 2, 2000.

But immediate past and present success may carry a cost in the not so-distant future, with Sather having traded the Rangers’ first-round draft picks from 2013 through 2016 in win-now deals for Rick Nash, Marty St. Louis and Keith Yandle.

It is, of course, unknown whether Gorton would have pulled off any of those deals, for though the assistant GM has great input into the process, every decision has been Sather’s.

Just as this one about his future will be. Maybe there will be one more year, maybe there will be one more kick at the can and the Cup for Sather, who won five as a coach and GM in Edmonton with the dynastic Oilers.

But maybe not.

Maybe this is the year Sather steps away.

We’ll see.

But for the first time, we know he is considering it.