The marquee names on the market will go elsewhere if they go anywhere during today’s NHL Entry Draft in New Jersey.
The Rangers could shuffle some chairs on the deck if they’re interested in dealing Michael Del Zotto for a defenseman of the stiffer variety whose cap hit is commensurate to No. 4’s $2.55 million, but the Blueshirts don’t have the necessary space available to pull off a blockbuster.
Neither do they own a surfeit of assets to sacrifice in order to make it worthwhile for a trade partner to assume up to half the cap charge of a player whom the Rangers might be interested in acquiring — say, someone like the Maple Leafs’ Dion Phaneuf, who has one year at $6.5 million remaining on his deal.
Though there could be some work around the margins, today’s business likely is to be conducted at the draft table, where the Blueshirts aren’t scheduled to select until 65th overall after having traded their first-rounder to the Blue Jackets in the Rick Nash deal and their second-rounder to the Sharks for Ryane Clowe.
Unless the Rangers can move up by bundling at least two of the three third-rounders (65, 75, 80 overall), this will mark the first Blueshirts’ initial pick in the 60s since 2000, when the club selected defenseman Filip Novak 64th overall.
Of course, that was the year the Rangers selected Henrik Lundqvist 205th overall, proving the adage that all’s well that ends well in the business of drafting.
“I’ve never had anything like this,” Gordie Clark, in his sixth year as the club’s director of player personnel, told The Post. “I’ve never had a year without a first or a second.
“Our staff puts the same amount of preparation into it, but we don’t have quite as much debate and fighting over where to rank the top players. The real debates over ranking where our [scouts] were fighting for the players in their territories that they’d seen most often came when we got to around No. 50.”
If the Rangers seek to trade up, it likely would be to the back end of the second round in order to grab a player they had ranked as a higher selection.
“Not many teams are trading a [high] second-round pick for a couple of thirds,” Clark said. “But maybe we can move into the last five picks or so of the second if we spot someone who we believe could be an impact player and has slipped through.
“If not, if we stand with our three thirds and then the fourth [110], we could focus in on positions rather than the ‘best player available’ philosophy.”
The organization is light on AHL defensemen ready to step up — hence the acquisition of Roman Hamrlik — with Dylan McIlrath, the controversial 2010 10th-overall selection held back by the dislocated kneecap he sustained during last summer’s prospect camp that forced him to miss the first half of the season in Hartford.
The Blueshirts don’t seem to have prospects up front knocking on the door, either, unless one counts Chris Kreider and J.T. Miller, which Clark does.
“They’re both so young that despite their NHL experience, you have to think of them as prospects with a good chance of starting the season with the Rangers,” Clark said. “I think J.T. would have played at the end if not for his wrist injury.
“And Chris, he basically has scored six goals in the Stanley Cup playoffs, three of them game-winners, and other than that didn’t play very much.”
* The Devils own the ninth overall pick while the Islanders are scheduled to select 15th overall, though they have made it known the pick is available for the right price.