Rangers need to avoid awkward Chris Kreider deadline limbo

Chris Kreider was the only Ranger left in the room, still seated in his stall while talking to a writer nearly 20 minutes after Saturday’s 5-2 victory over the Devils had ended.

Then, from around the corner came Mats Zuccarello, held out of the match as he awaited word of his trade to a destination yet unknown. The two men silently embraced. No need for words.

Three hours later, Zuccarello was off to Dallas, an upper case Star, in exchange for two conditional draft picks.

“He’s the first guy I met when I came to New York that first year for the playoff run,” Kreider, who joined the Blueshirts for the 2012 tournament days after leading Boston College to the NCAA title, told The Post. “He drove me to the rink my first day.

“So it’s hard. Very hard. Haysey [Kevin Hayes], too. I mean we played together at BC. I know it’s a cliché, but it’s true. These guys are more than teammates to me. They’re brothers. It’s a very tough time of the year.”

It is the second time in two years the Rangers will use the deadline, which this time comes Monday at 3 p.m., to send away top performers in exchange for draft picks and maybe-prospects. The Flames, Jets and Bruins are believed interested in Hayes, but are waiting for resolution on the Mark Stone situation in Ottawa before getting down to the nitty gritty with Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton. The Rangers could be interested in Calgary youngsters Andrew Mangiapane and Juuso Valimaki, the former a nearly 23-year-old winger, the latter a 20-year-old defenseman.

“We’re not unique going through this,” said Kreider, who scored his 25th goal, set up Ryan Strome for one with a spectacular no-look backhand feed and served as the screen on Brady Skjei’s goal from the top. “If you’re a Cup contender, you’re trading guys. If you’re in our situation, you’re trading guys. That’s what happens when there’s a cap. It’s part of the business. We all know that.”

But not every team starts the season knowing that veterans in their walk years will be dealt for futures regardless of their respective performances, the way the Rangers did this year. The Blueshirts deserve significant credit for not allowing the prospect of a tear-down to affect their season. Individual agendas never interfered with the group concept.

“That’s a testament to those guys’ character,” Kreider said. “They showed up and went to work.”

But it is a testament to the job done by David Quinn and the team itself. The Blueshirts competed with integrity. They are playing at an 83-point pace, well in excess of expectations. Thursday, though, the whole thing took its toll, when a demoralized team went down with a whimper to the Wild.

“There was a cloud over us,” Kreider said. “But then Friday at practice, our coaches and our staff did a great job with us so we started today’s game with a clean slate.”

Hayes and Adam McQuaid will join Zuccarello in bringing back market value for rental properties. If the Rangers have designs on getting a top-20 prospect, there’s one guy on the team who would command that price.

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And that would be Kreider, who has one more year at $4.625 million remaining on his contract. The Bruins are interested. So is Nashville, who can dangle the highly rated Eeli Tolvanen. The Maple Leafs have inquired as well.

“I try not to think about it,” Kreider said. “It’s nothing that I can control.”

The Rangers can begin negotiations on an extension for Kreider on July 1. Surely they must know by now whether they will commit to the five or six years at around $6.25 million it would probably take to keep the 27-year-old on Broadway long term. If not, then they may as well move him now, or at the entry draft in Vancouver.

Because the last thing the Rangers need is to start 2019-20 with Kreider reprising the role played this year by Zuccarello and Hayes. The rebuilding must go on, but not that way.

Two years of this is enough.