As Pavel Buchnevich pieces together a career year in St. Louis this season, it’s fair to wonder what could’ve been if president and general manager Chris Drury somehow managed to keep the Russian winger on the Rangers’ top line.

Emphasis on somehow, because realistically, Buchnevich was never going to get the long-term deal he wanted with star goalie Igor Shesterkin, Norris Trophy winner Adam Fox and top-line center Mika Zibanejad still in line for new contracts at the time — all of which materialized.

But in talking hypotheticals, if Buchnevich agreed to a one-year deal this past offseason, the Rangers would’ve had their top line locked in. Instead, the Rangers have spent much of the season in a trial-and-error period with that right-wing spot next to Zibanejad and Chris Kreider.

As much as Drury probably wished he could’ve kept Buchnevich, trading him opened the door for a young Ranger to seize a top-six role. The hope was always that it would be Alexis Lafreniere, who occupied Buchnevich’s old spot on Wednesday as he had the past nine games.

With the player who left the enormous void he’s expected to fill on the other end of the ice, Lafreniere showed that he was more than capable. In addition to scoring the first goal of the game in the Rangers’ 5-3 win, in which he cleaned up a rebound off a long shot from Adam Fox, Lafreniere posted two shots on goal and two takeaways in another dynamic performance.

“He’s really focused on the little things, he really cares about improving his game and growing as a player,” Kreider said of Lafreniere. “He’s getting to the net a lot. I mean, he’s scoring some pretty ones but he’s getting around the crease and he plays incredibly hard. So young still, you forget how young he is. It’s fun to see, fun to be apart of.”

The goal counted as Lafreniere’s 13th of the season, marking a new career high. He has now scored five goals in the past nine games, including three in the past four. Kreider, Zibanejad and Lafreniere have combined for 12 goals and only allowed four since reuniting on Jan. 28 after a brief stretch at the start of this season.

Should Lafreniere blossom into the perfect complement to the Rangers’ top line, the sting of losing Buchnevich just may fade.

Goalie Igor Shesterkin turned aside 29 of the 32 shots he faced to improve to 26-6-3 on the season.

Filip Chytil drew back into the Rangers lineup Wednesday night against the Blues, centering the third line in between Greg McKegg and Julien Gauthier.

After sitting out the previous three games, Chytil skated in his first contest since the Rangers beat the Senators 2-1 on Feb. 20 in Ottawa. Gerard Gallant said the 22-year-old missed the following game against the Capitals because he was under the weather, but the Rangers head coach opted to keep Chytil out the next two matchups despite the fact that he was healthy.

With Chytil back in, forward Morgan Barron was scratched. Defenseman Patrik Nemeth also slotted back onto the Rangers’ third pair alongside Braden Schneider and scored his first goal of the season.