Playing out of position is better than playing out of the league.

At least, that’s the thought process for Brendan Smith, the man who has played defense for almost all of his professional career but who has found a niche as a fourth-line winger — a skill that kept him with the Rangers a season ago, and one that has kept him here again rather than being down with AHL Hartford, where he spent the second half of the 2017-18 season.

“Last year was definitely an interesting year, it wasn’t anything I had to deal with before,” Smith said of the change before his team brought a five-game winless streak (0-4-1) into a Garden match against the league-leading Sabres on Thursday night. “Going into this year, I think just doing it more, I’m getting better at it the more I see it. For me, I want to be in the best shape possible, I want to help the team win. I thought I did a good job of that, either being here with the club [last year] and now to help the team in any aspect.”

Smith was an effective lefty-shot defenseman with the Red Wings when the Rangers first traded for him at the 2016-17 trade deadline. After an impressive playoff run with the Blueshirts, the club signed him to a four-year, $17.4 million deal that quickly blew up in their face.

Smith didn’t seem as ready as the Blueshirts were expecting when he showed up for training camp in 2017, and his season never got on track. The same day the franchise sent their famous letter to the fans declaring the rebuild on Feb. 8, 2018, they also put Smith on waivers. His hefty contract cleared with ease, and he spent the rest of that season playing with the youngsters on the Wolf Pack.

But when David Quinn came in at the start of last season, he eventually found that Smith had some viability at forward. Smith played a straightforward game that a lot of the roster was lacking, maybe even more so this season with the influx of more skill up front.

“He competes,” Quinn said. “You throw a puck in the corner, that’s not a guy you want to be in there with. That’s something we need more of, from a lot of guys. He can make a play, too. He can shoot the puck. Makes the opposing team uncomfortable.”

Quinn has kept Smith as a defenseman on the penalty kill, where the coach said he has done “a great job.” The options for man-down are limited on the back end, with Quinn choosing not to use either of his 21-year-old rookies, Adam Fox and Libor Hajek, nor the offensively minded Tony DeAngelo. That leaves Smith to go with Marc Staal, and a second wave of Jacob Trouba and Brady Skjei.

But maybe the biggest boost of confidence for Smith came when Quinn cut down his bench late in Tuesday night’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Coyotes — and Smith was one of nine forward to keep getting shifts down the stretch.

“I think it’s a boost,” Smith said. “There are so many guys on this team [who] are very competitive. I want to help the team win as best as possible. Whatever I can do to continue to play a strong, physical game, and help chip in offensively, maybe that gives me those opportunities. Sometimes that recognition is kind of nice.”

Smith, 30, has another year left on his deal after this season, and it’s hard to see exactly where he fits into the Rangers’ future, with the likes of young lefty-shot defensemen Ryan Lindgren and Yegor Rykov in the system. There are quite a few more jobs open in the NHL at forward, too, but he said he was not currently focused on what he might do going forward.

“I can’t comment on that,” Smith said. “Right at the moment, I just want to help the team in whatever aspect that is. I just like competing, so it doesn’t matter where it is, when it is. As long as I’m out there, I’m happy.”