The Rangers and Patrick Kane, a pairing that was years in the making, are together at long last.
Kane is headed to New York as the Rangers agreed to trade a conditional 2023 second-round draft pick, a 2025 fourth-rounder and AHL defenseman Andy Welinski to the Blackhawks, the team announced Tuesday night.
Now equipped with one of the most formidable top-sixes in the NHL, comprised of Kane, Vladimir Tarasenko, Artemi Panarin, Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad and Vincent Trocheck, the Rangers look like a club that can make some serious noise in the upcoming playoffs.
“It just kind of built up in the last couple days where we felt like we had a real chance to do this,” Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury said in a conference call.
The Rangers also acquired AHL defenseman Cooper Zech in the deal.
The second-round pick can reportedly become a first if the Rangers make the conference final, but it would move to 2024 or 2025.
Patrick Kane NY Post illustration; AP
The Coyotes are the third team helping facilitate the trade by retaining 25 percent of Kane’s remaining salary after the Blackhawks retain 50 percent of what’s left of his $10.5 million cap hit.
Phoenix received a third-round pick in 2025 from the Rangers for being the facilitator.
The trade would not have been possible if Kane — who will make his Rangers debut Thursday at the Garden against the Senators — had not been adamant about coming to Manhattan, and only Manhattan.
All the signs over the years indicated that the Rangers were one of the top teams (if not the only team) that Kane would waive his no-move clause to play for.
It was visible in the 34-year-old’s eyes when he fielded questions about the Rangers’ Feb. 10 acquisition of Tarasenko, which many believed was going to make it impossible for Kane to join the Rangers.
Kane took out his displeasure on opposing goalies, compiling a head-turning 10 points in four subsequent games.
It always seemed to be New York or nowhere for Kane.
That seemingly drove the price down and gave the Rangers the edge in negotiations with Chicago, a club sitting in the basement of the Central Division gunning for the right to select Connor Bedard with the first-overall pick in the 2023 draft.
“This has been an emotional time for me and my family,” Kane said in a statement, “but I feel this decision puts me in the best spot to immediately win another Stanley Cup. This isn’t about me leaving the Blackhawks, but is an opportunity for me — the Blackhawks did everything they could to put me in a great position and I will be forever grateful.
After plenty of rumors connecting them, Patrick Kane is finally a Ranger. Getty Images“It is bittersweet to leave a place that is so special to me, but I will always carry the memories we made in Chicago.”
Kane, who has 16 goals and 29 assists in 54 games this season, comes to the Rangers with three Stanley Cups under his belt.
He is a proven playoff performer, having posted 52 goals and 80 assists for a staggering 132 points in 136 postseason games over his 16-year NHL career.
Kane and Artemi Panarin formed a high-scoring combo during their Blackhawks days together. Getty Images
The experience will be invaluable for a Rangers team that is coming off its first lengthy playoff run in years.
The No. 1 pick in the 2007 draft, Kane has established himself as one of the best United States-born players in league history.
His trophy cabinet is loaded.
After he won the Calder Trophy as the top rookie in 2007-08, Kane was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy during the Blackhawks’ championship run in 2012-13.
During a 106-point season in 2015-16, Kane won the Hart Trophy, the Ted Lindsay Award and the Art Ross Trophy.
He does, however, come with some off-ice baggage.
He punched a cab driver and pleaded guilty to noncriminal disorderly conduct charges during a 2009 incident in Buffalo, Kane’s hometown.
In 2015, he was the subject of a sexual assault investigation in the Buffalo suburb of Hamburg, N.Y., though charges were never pressed.
Kane is now reunited with his old friend Panarin, with whom he skated during the Russian winger’s two seasons in Chicago at the start of his NHL career.
It’s yet to be seen whether Kane will line up on the first or second line, but there is history between Panarin and Kane.
Panarin once told The Post how effortless their chemistry was.
“We didn’t need any practices,” Panarin quipped with a smile.
