New York Daily News

Stepan recalls Garden party

- BY JUSTIN TASCH

Derek Stepan is not naive. He understand­s the business side of the game, knew how likely it was for the Rangers to make changes during the offseason, had heard trade rumors involving his name the summer prior.

None of that made being traded any easier. New York had become the second home for this son of Hastings, Minn. He signed a six-year deal in July of 2015 with the intention of playing it all out on Broadway.

He wanted to be a Ranger for life.

“Obviously any time you’re in an organizati­on for that long, you want to stay there forever,” Stepan told the Daily News. “You invest yourself in the organizati­on. You want to do whatever you can to help win in that organizati­on. Yeah, in a perfect world I would’ve loved that.”

Stepan returns to the Garden on Thursday with the Coyotes (who fell to 0-8-1 after a 5-3 loss to the Isles on Tuesday) at a time when his former club is struggling without a direct replacemen­t for the do-it-all center.

The Rangers still have quality leadership with Henrik Lundqvist, Ryan McDonagh, Marc Staal, Rick Nash and Mats Zuccarello. But Stepan and Dan Girardi played a combined 1,522 games across the regular season and playoffs in a Rangers jersey.

“That’s a lot of games played for two guys in an organizati­on to both be gone. That’s a big change,” Stepan told two local writers Monday at Prudential Center.

Signing Kevin Shattenkir­k wouldn’t have been possible if the Rangers hadn’t traded Stepan, who has four years left on that sixyear deal with an annual $6.5 million cap hit. Shattenkir­k is the face of Jeff Gorton’s retooling, which has included greater responsibi­lities for younger players.

So far the results have been ugly with the Rangers owning only two wins through 10 games.

Stepan, however, will always reflect fondly on his seven seasons in New York. The moment he’ll most be remembered for of course is the overtime goal he scored in Game 7 of the second round at home against Washington in 2015. For Stepan, the 2014 run to the Cup Final represents the best time of the 27-year-old’s career to date.

The one moment he mentioned specifical­ly was the firstperio­d goal Martin St. Louis scored on Mother’s Day in 2014 in Game 6 of the second round against Pittsburgh, three days after St. Louis’ mother died.

“I’ve got goosebumps just talking about it,” Stepan said. “That was something in our sport that you don’t see. It’s crazy, that scene. That goal when he scored at home, that was the most emotional goal I’ve ever been a part of, inside, on the ice.”

That’s one of many memories part of a now bygone era. Stepan knew exactly what Gorton was going to tell him when he saw Gorton’s name pop up on his phone in June. “Gorts isn’t calling me in the summer to chat,” Stepan said. He went through the gamut of emotions: Sadness, frustratio­n, and finally excitement after speaking with Coyotes GM John Chayka. Stepan and his wife Stephanie, who gave birth to the couple’s second child last month, reside in Scottsdale.

UP AND DOWN: The Rangers called up Boo Nieves from AHL Hartford.

Nieves presumably will be the fourth-line center for Thursday’s game against Arizona. Nieves has two goals and an assist in seven games with Hartford this season. Earlier Tuesday the Rangers put forward Adam Cracknell on waivers, two weeks after they claimed him off waivers from Dallas. They also sent defenseman Tony DeAngelo down to Hartford.

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Derek Stepan

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