It turns out that the Rangers and Brandon Dubinsky didn’t have to go through the unpleasant arbitration process, after all: Dubinsky agreed to a four-year deal today worth $16.8 million, locking him up through what would have been his first two years of unrestricted free agency, at least under the terms of the current collective bargaining agreement. And the deal is a pretty reasonable one: Dubinsky reportedly had been seeking a five- or six-year deal worth between $5 million and $5.25 million — a relatively steep annual salary. (For comparison’s sake, Bobby Ryan makes $5.1 million per year.) Instead, the cap hit for Dubinsky — who led the team in scoring last year with a career-high 54 points — is $4.2 million annually. And so now that that’s settled, the Rangers and Ryan Callahan’s patient agent can finally get to work on a deal for the captain-in-waiting. [NYDN]