So Ryan Reaves, who in large part was the personification of the Rangers’ 2022 summer response to Tom Wilson, Matt Martin, Cal Clutterbuck and all of the indignities the Blueshirts suffered through the 2021-22 season, was back at the Garden on Tuesday with his new team.

He would wear No. 75 for the Wild, to whom he was traded on Nov. 23 for a fifth-round draft choice after having lost his role in New York. Wait. Saying that Reaves lost his role is a polite way of putting it. He lost his job, that’s what happened, the winger a healthy scratch in seven of the eight games prior to the deal.

The Blueshirts could not afford to keep him as a spare 14th forward, not at a $1.75 million cap hit on the one-year extension the 35-year-old was awarded as a condition of the trade that brought him to Broadway from the desert the previous July. The fact is that GM Chris Drury did extremely well by removing that entire obligation from the ledger, the deal with Minnesota creating the ability to maneuver leading up to the March 3 deadline.

Coach Gerard Gallant, in whom Reaves had an ally from their days together in Vegas, didn’t think the winger could catch up anymore in a game that is growing faster by the minute. Uncertainty about Reaves’ status had been created in the late spring when the winger was scratched from both Games 5 and 6 against Tampa Bay.

Reaves recognized his tenuous position. Maybe the Rangers could have been more forthcoming with him in deference to Reaves’ status as a 13-year NHL veteran and had informed him of trade talks with the Wild as they were ongoing. He sure thinks so, saying as much to a group of reporters from New York following the morning skate.

Maybe.

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But do you think Emile Francis checked in with Jean Ratelle or Brad Park in the first week of November 1975? Do you think Glen Sather had Brian Leetch on speed dial leading up to the Deadline Purge of 2004? Do you think Jeff Gorton kept Derek Stepan in the loop before sending him away in 2017?

There is no question that Reaves brought value to the Rangers last year. His presence in the room was a major factor in the good vibes the team carried through the season. His presence on the ice seemed to infuse many of his fellow Blueshirts with a smidgeon of extra courage, even if he fought only when challenged himself and not in the defense of a teammate. I thought he was important against Pittsburgh and Carolina in the playoffs.

But the Rangers evolved and Reaves’ presence was no longer necessary on the ice. As his ice time diminished, so necessarily did his off-ice personality. A player has to get a uniform in order to lead.

The Blueshirts did go 2-5-2 in the first nine games after Reaves was traded, but that has been followed by the 11-2-2 run the club carried into this match against the Wild. They were also 5-1-2 in the eight games in which Reaves was scratched. There has been no uptick whatsoever in liberties taken against the Rangers in Reaves’ absence.

If you want to point out that Sam Lafferty’s late high hit on Filip Chytil in Chicago last month went unavenged, I would point out that P.K. Subban’s low blow on Sammy Blais’ knee in November of 2022 also went unavenged, though that time with Reaves in the lineup.

So, Reaves is gone after a valuable short-term layover, and the Rangers appear to be none the worse for it, on the ice or in the room, while far better off on the financial ledger.

But here’s the thing. The makeover, of which Reaves was the personification, seems to have been as temporary as the winger’s residence in Manhattan. Reaves is gone. Blais, acquired in the boondoggle of the Pavel Buchnevich trade with St. Louis, is barely a factor as a fourth-liner whose job is surely going to be in jeopardy as the deadline approaches. Dryden Hunt is gone.

Barclay Goodrow and his leadership is still here as an integral piece of this team and will drop the gloves under any circumstance when triggered, but No. 21 was not acquired to act as a counterpoint to Wilson, Martin or Clutterbuck.

So suddenly, the Blueshirts’ top nine is about as homogeneous as it was during the final days of the John Davidson-Gorton regime. It is incontrovertible that Vincent Trocheck brings more bite than Ryan Strome did, but it is also true that the club’s top three lines are packed with talent-oriented athletes the way it was before the summer of 2022. This has been the way of the Rangers for generations.

By the way. Tom Wilson played his first game of the season on Sunday following offseason ACL surgery.