TAMPA, Fla. — Let’s stipulate that you are not likely to ever see a more formidable Rangers’ top four defense than the group the 1994 Stanley Cup champions sent onto the ice. It included three future Hall of Famers in Brian Leetch, Sergei Zubov and Kevin Lowe and the toughest beat cop around in Jeff Beukeboom.

But the current top quartet compares favorably to any top four the Blueshirts have had in the interim. Or maybe it is a tad more accurate to suggest that this group, featuring Adam Fox, Ryan Lindgren, Jacob Trouba and K’Andre Miller, can be compared to the top four the Rangers were developing at the start of their run last decade.

In the second half of 2010-11, the Blueshirts had a top four of Marc Staal, Dan Girardi, Ryan McDonagh and Michael Sauer — all aged 27 or younger — that appeared set for years to come.

Things happened, though, the next season. For as the 2011-12 Black-and-Blueshirts stormed their way to the best record in the East and made it to the conference final, that top four was never intact for so much as a single game.