NHL

Rangers add bulk in trade for Scott

The only deal made by either the Rangers or Devils at the NHL trade deadline yesterday was the Rangers’ acquisition of 6-foot-8 enforcer John Scott from the Blackhawks for a fifth-round draft pick.

The Devils were even more inert, standing pat after acquiring defenseman Marek Zidlicky Friday and forward Alexei Ponikarovsky Jan. 12.

“He’s a real good factor to stop the fooling around that happens at this time of year,” Rangers general manager Glen Sather said of Scott, his new 270-pound thumper. “[Brandon Prust and Mike Rupp] have done all the heavy lifting this year. If someone gets hurt, he’s another asset.”

There were no blockbusters made around the NHL yesterday, one of the better deadline days to be a seller than a buyer, witness the first-rounder dealt by Nashville to Buffalo for Paul Gaustad and a fourth-rounder. Rick Nash remained in Columbus, despite the Rangers’ long-and-late attempts to bring him to Broadway.

“It really didn’t go anywhere at all,” Sather said. “We talked to a lot of people. But the way the deals were falling out, it didn’t make any sense. We like our team, we like what we have, we like the youth we have. We have a program in place we want to stick with. You have to be careful in these situations.”

“[Prices] seemed very high. I wasn’t going to dismantle any of the pieces out of our organization. We’re not ready to do anything like that.

“We don’t know how far we can go, we don’t know how far anybody’s going to go. I like the chemistry of the hockey team.”

Lamoriello, the Devils GM, was also cautious in estimating his team’s coming fortunesthrifty shoppers were empty-handed shoppers.

“There was nothing we could do that would make us better and be cost effective,” said Lamoriello, operating under a secret payroll budget set before the Devils began receiving advances on future revenue from the league.

Lamoriello said he made his moves beforehand, landing Zidlicky and Ponikarovsky. The Devils have a star-filled crop of forwards, led by Ilya Kovalchuk, Patrik Elias and Zach Parise, and a defense made of solid veterans, but without a star, unless Zidlicky fills that bill.