BOSTON — When the Rangers articulated their reconstruction principles via the Feb. 8, 2018, Letter and in subsequent press conferences, it became clear that management had little enthusiasm for bottoming out through an extended process.

At the time, it was compared in theory to the remodeling the Bruins underwent a couple of seasons after their early-decade run that included a Stanley Cup championship in 2011 and a trip to the final two years later. The B’s lost in the first round in 2014 and then missed the playoffs in 2015 and 2016.

But as soon as 2017-18, the B’s were legit contenders, losing in Round Two to the Lightning in one of those unfair early matchups created by Sixth Avenue’s crazy playoff structure. And now the Bruins are a powerhouse, 47-21-9 following their 6-3 victory over the Rangers on Wednesday night.

The problem in inferring that New York management should simply follow the plan enacted by the Boston front office is only this — the Bruins’ approach to their rebuild has essentially nothing in common with the way the Rangers are going about this process.

The Bruins did not stock up on first-round draft picks. The Bruins did not trade their best players as rental properties. The Bruins are still capitalizing on hitting the NHL’s biggest free-agent home run in history with the Zdeno Chara signing in 2006 that Rangers GM Jeff Gorton finalized while he worked as Boston’s interim GM awaiting the official arrival of Peter Chiarelli. They are still capitalizing on the home run of a trade made by Gorton when he landed Tuukka Rask in a deal for Andrew Raycroft.

Only two of Boston’s own first-rounders play marquee roles on the team, and neither David Pastrnak (25th overall in 2014) nor Charlie McAvoy (14th in 2016) was selected out of a premium spot. So much for having to bottom out or have a top-four pick in order to draft a difference-maker. Easier at the very top, of course it is. But there are players available beyond the initial handful.

Do you know how the Rangers could be the Bruins? By drafting Patrice Bergeron in 2003, selected by Boston 45th overall well after the Blueshirts grabbed Hugh Jessiman 12th.

Do you know how the Rangers could be the Bruins? By drafting David Krejci in 2004, selected by Boston 63rd overall after the Blueshirts took Al Montoya sixth; Lauri Korpikoski 19th; Darin Oliver 36th; Dane Byers 48th; Bruce Graham 51st and Brandon Dubinsky 60th.

Do you know how the Rangers could be the Bruins? By drafting Brad Marchand in 2006, selected by Boston 71st overall after the Blueshirts tabbed Bob Sanguinetti at 21 and Artem Anisimov at 54.

By the way, it was Gorton who ran the draft those years for the Bruins. And the purpose of pointing out these Rangers’ misses is not to flay them, because everybody missed early on Bergeron, Marchand and Krejci, but to demonstrate that accumulating top first-rounders is not only the only route to success.

No, the Rangers did not have a shot at either Pastrnak or McAvoy, having traded out of the first round each of those years. But they wouldn’t have had a shot at either, either, due to their projected draft positions even if they had retained the picks.

The Rangers had three first-round selections last June and stand to have between two and four this summer, depending upon the success of Tampa Bay and Dallas. It is common wisdom that the Blueshirts are now paying the price for the organization’s commitment to going all-in from 2012-2016, and that is certainly part of the equation.

It is an utterly speculative business to attempt to gauge where the Rangers might be if they had not traded a first in the Rick Nash deal; two firsts in the Marty St. Louis trade; a first in the Keith Yandle swap; two seconds in the Eric Staal exchange. Critically, we don’t know where the Rangers would have finished in any given year without those players, so we can’t know where they would have drafted.

But we do know that the players drafted in the first-round positions ultimately yielded by the Rangers were Kerby Rychel, Josh Ho Sang, Anthony Beauvillier and Dennis Cholowski. Of all the players on the board at the time of those selections, only Sebastian Aho, taken in the second round, is a current difference-maker.

And we know the Bruins bounced back so quickly not because they bottomed out, but because they are reaping the benefit of brilliant second- and third-round picks and free-agent signings and trades made more than a decade ago. Beyond that, the one time they loaded up on first-rounders in 2015 by trading Milan Lucic and backup goaltender Martin Jones, the B’s at 13-14-15 somehow passed up Mat Barzal, Kyle Connor and Thomas Chabot.

So the Boston Plan as applies to the Rangers?

Nothing to see here, keep moving.