Emotional day as Rangers trade Zuccarello to Stars for two picks

The Rangers knew it was coming, but that hardly made it any easier.

A fan favorite as much as a team favorite, Mats Zuccarello was traded on Saturday night to the Stars.

The inevitable move for the pending unrestricted free agent brought back two conditional draft picks — a second-rounder in 2019, which would become a first-rounder if Dallas wins two playoff rounds (unlikely), and a third-rounder in 2020 that becomes a first-rounder if Dallas re-signs the 31-year-old Norwegian.

The Rangers retained approximately 30 percent of Zuccarello’s prorated $4.5 million annual salary-cap hit, helping the Stars get under their salary-cap crunch as they hold on to hope while battling for a wild-card spot.

It was a tough in day what has been a handful of them in a row for the rebuilding Blueshirts, who hours before the trade managed to beat the Devils, 5-2, in a Garden matinee.

“It was very emotional, before the game as well,” said Mika Zibanejad, who missed Zuccarello on the right side of his red-hot top line. “I had a bit of that last game, knowing that this could happen and knowing it could be the last game with that guy on my right.

“It was hard, it was hard to see him here and not be ready to play and be part of it. But it’s a business. Still, we’re human beings. Don’t know how to deal with it, really. I don’t think anyone really has the answer how to.”

The Rangers (27-26-8) also prudently sat their two other main trade chips, forward Kevin Hayes and defenseman Adam McQuaid. It made things pretty clear that any of those pie-eyed thoughts of making the playoffs are now shelved for the reality of this rebuilding.

“I’m not an idiot. I understand the situation we’re in,” first-year head coach David Quinn said after his team went out to a 3-0 lead against the mostly lifeless Devils (24-30-8) and never looking back. “But we have to keep moving forward.”

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Rangers breeze past Devils as trade pieces sit before deadline

This was the day when reality finally hit, and it…

Zuccarello first came to the Blueshirts as an undrafted free agent out of the Swedish League — small in stature, but long on skill and vision. Carrying an abnormally large stick for his size, he still went by the hyphenated last name of Zuccarello-Aasen and his competitiveness immediately enamored him to Rangers fans.

So much so, they voted him a three-time winner of the Steven MacDonald Extra Effort Award (2013-14, 2015-16, 2016-17), given to the player who “goes above and beyond the call of duty.” He also famously went through a traumatic brain injury in the 2015 playoffs, when he was struck in the head by a slap shot from teammate Ryan McDonagh and was left unable to speak for four days with bleeding in his brain.

Knowing that he was more than likely going to be traded this season from the only NHL organization he had known, the emotional Zuccarello struggled at the start of the year. But he had a sit-down with management around the New Year, and since then he had been playing some of the best hockey of his career.

In the 16 games he played beginning Jan. 12, Zuccarello had seven goals and 15 assists, helping general manager Jeff Gorton get the return he did. Even before the inevitable trades of Hayes and McQuaid, the club is now stocked with four picks in the first two rounds of June’s draft.

Both Zuccarello and Hayes had come to impasses with management over the past month of contract negotiations, and now Zuccarello will leave the Rangers after 509 regular-season games ranked 15th on the franchise’s all-time assists list (239) and 26th on the franchise’s all-time points list (352). He is also the best Norwegian-born player in NHL history, leading in games played, goals, assists, and points.

He also leaves a legacy on Broadway, one that now rests as a stinging reminder of the franchise’s painful rebuild that will continue over the next few days.

“It’s hard to look around and not see them. Not used it,” Zibanejad said. “It wasn’t an easy game, I think more mentally and emotionally than physically. But we got through it.”