Rangers’ veteran trade deadline acquisitions complete contender puzzle

They have babies on the back end, no doubt about that when you are talking about a top four that features 24-year-olds Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren and 22-year-old K’Andre Miller plus a third pair showcasing 20-year-old Braden Schneider. 

But the Rangers are no longer young up front. And they are not even young-ish when it comes to their top six that will assume most of the responsibility and most of the burden when the Blueshirts skate into their first playoff series since 2017. 

You never know about injuries, such as the unspecified third-period lower-body injury Andrew Copp sustained after recording a first-period natural hat trick on the Island in Thursday’s 6-3 victory that clinched home ice for the first round and kept the Blueshirts in a first-place tie with Carolina with four games to go. 

But if No. 18 can return in time for the playoff opener the first week of May, the Rangers’ top two lines will comprise 31-year-old Chris Kreider with 29-year-old Mika Zibanejad and 28-year-old Frank Vatrano on one unit while 30-year-old Artemi Panarin skates with 28-year-old Ryan Strome and the 27-year-old Copp on the other. 

The greying of the top six at just the right time represents perhaps the most consequential impact of the deadline-proximate deals pulled off by general manager Chris Drury, who added Copp, Vatrano, 35-year-old defenseman Justin Braun and currently injured 27-year-old Tyler Motte to the roster. 

Believe me, if the 2022 Rangers have 16 playoff wins in them, these deals will be remembered as fondly as the ones at the 1994 deadline that helped transform the team into Stanley Cup champions. 

“We talked about it early in the year, we have some young kids that we’re real happy with but a little more experience doesn’t hurt us,” head coach Gerard Gallant said. “I think we’re showing that since all those deals. 

“You’ve got more experience out there and the kids are fitting in well where they’re playing.” 

Truth be told (and that’s always the objective here), with Kaapo Kakko sidelined with an unidentified right leg injury, 20-year-old Alexis Lafreniere and 22-year-old Filip Chytil — who also left Thursday’s match in the third period — are the only two young forwards in the lineup. 

Copp was expected to be a top-sixer upon his acquisition from the Jets, though no one could quite anticipated his explosive production, now 18 points (8-10) in 15 games with the Blueshirts. Of course, when one is playing with Panarin, whose four assists in yet another brilliant performance established a franchise season record for forwards at 74, a multiplier must be factored into the equation. 

It’s Vatrano, though, whose top-six inclusion might be a surprise, for he had generally been a bottom-sixer for the Panthers prior to his March 16 acquisition five days ahead of the deadline. He spent his first four games as a Ranger with Panarin and Strome. 

But the adjustment initially made for the March 25 match against the Penguins has taken hold. If healthy, the Rangers’ top of the order is as settled as it has been since Jean Ratelle played between Vic Hadfield and Rod Gilbert while Walter Tkaczuk centered Steve Vickers and Billy Fairbairn. Well, maybe not quite that long, but you get the idea. (Even in 2013-14 and 2014-15, the club was constantly juggling top-six combinations.) 

“We expected what we’re getting from him, to be honest with you,” Gallant said of Vatrano, who has 11 points (7-4) since the trade. “He’s been in the league for a while and has the reputation as a guy who can shoot the puck and score. 

“You’ve got to make sure he’s going every night. So when he got the opportunity to go up with those guys, he’s been able to stay there.” 

Vatrano is a straight-line guy with offensive flair whose shoot-first philosophy provides an interesting contrast to Kreider and Zibanejad’s erstwhile partner, Pavel Buchnevich, for one. 

“He’s a threat and when he gets the puck he shoots the puck. Sometimes we get frustrated because our guys hold the puck too long,” Gallant said. “Sometimes we get too cute with the plays on top. It’s funny how our team is. 

“We make some real good plays, we have some good O-zone possession but Vatrano is a guy that shoots the puck. You need a little bit of everything. I think that’s what we added to our group. We added a guy who is going to shoot the puck more than he’s going to pass it.” 

The Rangers have added diversity. The Rangers added experience. The Rangers have added, gasp, age. There’s your rebuild.