Zuccarello, Hayes suit up for Rangers despite approaching NHL trade deadline

Mats Zuccarello and Kevin Hayes may have gotten their Garden farewell after all — injury risk be damned.

The two Rangers remained in the lineup Thursday night against the Wild at the Garden, as did defenseman Adam McQuaid, even with all three expected to be wearing different sweaters by Monday’s trade deadline.

Coach David Quinn had said Thursday morning that he planned on playing all three trade chips unless he heard otherwise, and apparently, no word came down from management to change course in order to protect the trio from injury.

“Until I’m told differently, we’re going to play those guys,” Quinn had said after all 22 Rangers were on the ice for the team’s morning skate. “We’re going to put the best lineup we can tonight and march forward, until I’m told differently.”

A few hours later, the Rangers announced they had recalled Lias Andersson from AHL Hartford, giving them 13 healthy forwards and eight healthy defensemen. The added depth would have allowed Quinn to scratch Zuccarello, Hayes and McQuaid and use a lineup of 11 forwards and seven defensemen if need be. Instead, Andersson just replaced Boo Nieves as the fourth-line center, while Brendan Smith and Fredrik Claesson were the defensive scratches.

After Thursday, the Blueshirts have two games left before Monday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline, home Saturday against the Devils and at Washington on Sunday. By then Zuccarello, Hayes and McQuaid are expected to be traded, with others potentially on the move as well.

The precautionary scratches would not have been out of the norm for this time of the year. Elsewhere Thursday night, the Senators chose to do so with Mark Stone, Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel while the Devils did the same with Marcus Johansson and Ben Lovejoy.

Zuccarello and Hayes are both pending free agents, and with extension talks going nowhere, per The Post’s Larry Brooks, they are likely in their final days as Rangers. It also appears unlikely that either one will sign back with the Rangers after July 1, despite both having said they would like to remain with the team.

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The likelihood of a trade had admittedly been on Zuccarello’s mind and affected his game negatively, the ninth-year Rangers left wing told Brooks in early January, until he had a series of conversations with Quinn and management that seemed to put his mind at ease. In his past 17 games, the 31-year-old fan favorite has racked up seven goals and 16 assists while playing his best hockey on a red-hot first line. Clicking with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider, Zuccarello has helped the unit record 57 points (25 goals, 32 assists) over the last 15 games in which all three players were in the lineup.

The 26-year-old Hayes had experienced his own hot streak earlier in the season, when he posted five goals and 11 assists during a nine-game point streak in December. Two games later, he began sitting out a stretch of eight straight games to tend to a nagging upper-body injury. The issue stemmed from his crash into the boards Dec. 14 against the Coyotes, which he initially played through before taking time to address. He returned after the bye week and All-Star break, having tallied four goals and five assists in 11 games since then.

McQuaid’s contributions to the Rangers may be best remembered as helping Brady Skjei get back to playing at a high level. The two have been paired together on the blue line since the 32-year-old McQuaid returned from a lower-body injury in December, with his steady presence complementing Skjei’s game well. The Rangers acquired McQuaid from the Bruins in September for Steven Kampfer, a 2019 fourth-round pick and 2019 conditional seventh-round pick.