Howden on fast track to top six

Brett Howden has gone from just making the Rangers to now getting a top-six role.

It looks like the rookie center is going to start Thursday’s match against the Sharks at the Garden, between Chris Kreider and Mats Zuccarello, as first-year coach David Quinn continues to search for answers with his 0-3-0 team.

“He’s getting more comfortable for sure,” Quinn said Tuesday of the 20-year-old Howden. “As most firstyear players in this league get when they have a little bit of success, there’s a confidence level that grows. Confidence is earned, not given. It’s not like I come to the rink every day and say, ‘I have confidence in Howden today.’ That’s something that you earn, confidence. And he’s earning by the way he’s playing.”

Howden was a first-round pick (No. 27 overall) of the Lightning in 2016, and came to the Blueshirts as part of the Ryan McDonagh-J.T. Miller trade with Tampa Bay. He made the team out of training camp over Lias Andersson, the Rangers’ 2017 first-round pick (No. 7 overall), who had been expected to crack the opening night roster.

In the three games he has played, Howden has a goal and an assist, and said he feels his confidence growing with each passing day.

“I think each game I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable and a lot more confident, too,” he said. “Even from preseason to now, I feel way more confident in myself out there. … I just want to keep doing the best I can.”

➤ Quinn was finally able to get defenseman Tony DeAngelo into his first game during the 8-5 loss at Carolina on Sunday night. He said he was impressed with DeAngelo’s performance after the 22-year-old had been scratched for the first two games of the season.

“Tony played really well,” said Quinn, who seems set to pair DeAngelo with Marc Staal for Thursday’s game. “He made some bigtime plays. He had a good camp. I feel like we have some depth on the blue line.”

That also includes 25-year-old veteran Fredrik Claesson, who has yet to play.

“Freddy Claesson is a good defenseman, I want to get him in there too,” Quinn said. “We feel all eight guys can play, and unfortunately, there are going to be two guys that are out that are NHL defensemen.”