How Mats Zuccarello is dealing with his trade-bait reality

This is a strange time for Mats Zuccarello.

The Rangers winger has heard his name in all the rumors, knows that with his expiring contract he is a valuable piece to general manager Jeff Gorton as the club thinks about the Feb. 25 trade deadline and the roster rebuilding that is being undertaken. The emotional 31-year-old Norwegian has also dealt with all that while trying to come back from a right-groin injury that has sidelined him essentially since it occurred on Nov. 6.

But despite two games played during the 15-game interim — false starts from the injury that Zuccarello himself called “stupid” and “selfish” — he now finally seems near 100 percent and ready for a full return with Friday’s Garden match against the Coyotes. And despite all the talk about him being moved, Zuccarello continues to be steadfast in his love for the Rangers, the only NHL team he has ever played for.

“You know what, I think everyone knows my opinion about everything. I love it here,” Zuccarello told The Post after Wednesday’s practice in Tarrytown. “This is my ninth season. This is where I grew up to become — hopefully — an adult. Maybe half [an adult]. But this is home for me, my second home.”

Recently, Zuccarello went on a Norwegian hockey podcast and said that he was waiting to be traded, but he wanted to make it clear exactly what he meant.

“Like I said earlier — and people got it out of context — in the situation I’m in right now, you have to prepare for everything,” he said. “Whatever happens, happens. I can’t control it. If something happens, you just have to look at it — you can’t be sulking. It’s going to be real sad for me, and it’s going to be tough. But you just have to try to look [at the] positive. That’s all I said, and people blow up stuff.

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“There’s no secret that it’s out there. For me, I prepare for everything, try to do my best as long as I’m here. Hopefully I’m here for a long time. If not, it’s nothing I can control.”

Zuccarello was one of the great finds from Glen Sather, the former general manager and now team president. He signed the 5-foot-8 playmaker as an undrafted free agent in 2010. Zuccarello has played 480 career regular-season games to go along with 60 postseason games. As a fan favorite, he has won the Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award three times (2014, 2016, 2017).

Yet his value to the organization as a whole might be better served as a trade piece leading up to the deadline. In the final season of his four-year, $18 million contract, which carries an annual salary-cap hit of $4.5 million, Zuccarello could be a nice two-way piece for a team making a run at the Stanley Cup. And that could mean the Rangers receive prospects or picks in return that could brighten their future.

But for that to happen, he also needs to be healthy, which he finally is after getting hurt in the midst of finding his game following some early-season struggles.

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“I thought his game was starting to come and he was playing well,” coach David Quinn said of Zuccarello, who has three goals an 10 points in 17 games this year. “It was unfortunate, the timing of it. He’s worked really hard coming back. I know he’s wanted to come back for a while. Just didn’t make sense to put him in a situation where he was going to be in and out. We wanted to make sure when he does come back that it’s full-go and there’s no looking back.”

Zuccarello hasn’t played less than 77 games in a full regular season since 2013, although he did miss significant time after a frightful head injury in the 2015 playoffs. Yet this season’s injury was a bit different than anything he had dealt with, so he tried to come back by playing games on Nov. 15 against the Islanders and Nov. 23 against the Flyers.

“The last two games I played, I wasn’t doing the team any good. That was a selfish decision to want to play,” Zuccarello said. “I just want to make sure, if I play, I can help the team be better.”

Right now, that means going back into the lineup. But, as Zuccarello understands, in a few months that might mean with another team.