There is no way that the Rangers would be able to meet impending free agent Nazem Kadri’s asking price even if Colorado’s Cup-winning second-line center would otherwise be first on general manager Chris Drury’s wish list.

Everyone knows that.

And yet, as late as Tuesday morning, just 24 hours before the opening of the free-agent market, Kadri was still being linked to the Blueshirts by folks around the league who generally have had pretty good track records as sources, even if they couldn’t quite come up with the scenario that would allow the club to pull it off.

“Kadri,” wrote one. “But don’t ask me how.”

The Rangers might be able to stretch to $6 million per for a second-line center, though they’d have to cut corners down the roster in order to accommodate that price. Somewhere in the $5.25 million range would be more ideal for this club that faces a mighty salary cap squeeze for at least the next three seasons.

And Kadri, who will turn 32 the week preceding the 2022-23 opener and is coming off a career season for the champs, will likely command a six-year deal worth an annual average value of upward of $7 million per.

He can produce offense, as his personal best (by far) 28-59-87 season in Colorado attests, but perhaps even more importantly, Kadri would be a physical presence in the middle. He plays with an edge that sets him apart from the Rangers’ more polite top-six. He represents the antonym of vanilla. He fills a need that became obvious during the Tampa Bay series. He can get to the inside.

Except the Rangers don’t have the ability to get him.

Yes they do.

Sign and trade.

The Rangers could get Kadri if Drury can engineer a trade whereby Kadri would sign with a third team that would assume 50 percent of the contract before immediately sending him to New York for a package of futures.

I’m thinking that tanking Chicago and Arizona would be perfect candidates with which to pull off the caper — clubs that are willing to take on bad contracts and money in exchange for the kind of return they would receive from the Rangers.

Imagine if the Blueshirts could get a second-line center for the next five or six years for an annual cap hit of between $3.5M-$4M per. That would be massive. For the Rangers would not only get the player they covet, they would have up to an additional $2M-$2.5M of previously projected, spoken-for space that might allow the team to re-up Tyler Motte or even Andrew Copp.

Now listen, if you think that giving 32-year-olds long-term deals is a losing proposition, then you stay away from this. But you also must fill the hole in the middle of the second line. You must be able to replace three apparently outgoing top-six members of the team’s run to the conference final in Copp, Ryan Strome and Frank Vatrano. And you must do it without much room to maneuver under the cap. And for a team that was banging on the door last we saw.

But if Drury could pull this off, the Rangers would have both their preferred 2C and some breathing room. That surely would be worth more than a one-year rental of J.T. Miller (or even Patrick Kane). That would be worth more than a two-year rental of Mark Scheifele, whose annual $6.125 million cap hit pushes all the limits.

The offer would start with Nils Lundkvist. If including Vitali Kravtsov would allow the club to retain Copp, that would not be a deal-breaker. It’s the same story. The Rangers would wall off Igor Shesterkin, Adam Fox, Alexis Lafreniere, K’Andre Miller, Braden Schneider, Ryan Lindgren, Brennan Othmann, Will Cuylle and the no-move veterans. They should be very reluctant to part with next year’s first-rounder.

What about Kaapo Kakko?

Good question.

The further the Game 6 scratch against the Lightning recedes into the background, the more disturbing it becomes. It is particularly haunting that, two days later when addressing the press at break-up day, the Finn said he believed, “In the playoffs I played maybe the best hockey I ever have been playing.”

His best hockey — while combining with Filip Chytil’s best hockey and Alexis Lafreniere’s best hockey — couldn’t get him a spot in the order in an elimination game after he had been part of a winning lineup in five previous elimination contests. The spot went to Dryden Hunt.

Would I want to trade Kakko for Kadri? No, I’d want the 21-year-old Finn to play with Kadri. Kakko has reached restricted free agency, but our best information is that neither side anticipates an issue — or an offer sheet — to derail talks on a likely two-year deal. Ideally, the 2019 second-overall pick would be off limits as well, but the question is whether the staff — and the head coach — believes Kakko remains a core piece.

There are not all that many apparent upper-echelon options available to Drury. This is one of them. The Rangers don’t have the wherewithal to sign Kadri. But they do have the ability to get him.

Sign and trade.