The question arose in the wake of Chris Kreider’s third-period, series clinching hat trick in Carolina whether his No. 20 would one day be raised to the Garden’s pinwheel ceiling, and my response was, yes — but only if the winger goes wire-to-wire as a Blueshirt.

That prospect is in jeopardy. And honestly, it’s not just a this-week thing. These final three years of his contract, for which Kreider’s no-move clause became a limited no-trade, were always going to feature land mines.

It’s tough for a Ranger to go the distance. Am I right, Leetchie?

But this is hardly unique to this franchise, which actually has a fairly decent roll call of career Rangers, even if there would be asterisks attached to Henrik Lundqvist and Anders Hedberg.