Quinn: Trade to Preds gives McLeod shot at Cup

Trading Cody McLeod to the Predators for a 2020 seventhround draft as the Rangers did prior to facing the Bruins at the Garden on Wednesday “made a lot of sense,” said coach David Quinn.

“I loved having Cody here,” said Quinn, who as an assistant coached McLeod in Colorado in 2012-13. “This gives him an opportunity and a chance to win the Stanley Cup in the place that he came from and where his family is living. They were hot after him.

“For us, it gives us another asset and a chance to bring up a young player and let him develop.”

The young player is Vinni Lettieri, recalled from the AHL Wolf Pack on his 24th birthday and inserted onto the fourth line, on which he took eight shifts for 7:15 of ice time in the 4-3 shootout win over Boston. Lettieri has been up with the Rangers before, of course, getting 19 games last season and 16 this year before he was dispatched to Hartford in mid-November.

The 2017 free-agent signee out of the University of Minnesota has one goal and four assists in the NHL, all of his points coming a year ago. A self-professed shooter, Lettieri scored his only goal in his NHL debut at Detroit on Dec. 29, 2017.

“Sometimes young players can put the end result ahead of the process and think about scoring goals or getting points more than focusing on the details of what they need to do to produce,” Quinn said. “I thought Vinni played well for us when he was here.”

McLeod, originally claimed on waivers from the Predators during last year’s All-Star break, recorded three points (one goal, two assists) in 56 games and was on the ice for six goals for the Rangers and 27 against while wearing the Blueshirt. One of the last of the single-dimension enforcers in the league, McLeod amassed 12 fighting majors and 99 penalty minutes while wearing the Blueshirt.

Neal Pionk was a healthy scratch on defense with Brendan Smith remaining in for the fifth straight game. Pionk has struggled since suffering an unidentified lower-body injury in late December.

“The injury was not easy, and he tried to fight through it,” Quinn said of Pionk, who spent the first half of the year as Marc Staal’s first-pair, righty partner. “I think that’s part of it, but he seems to have lost a bit of decisiveness, confidence and swagger.”

Smith, who has two years remaining on his contract at an annual $4.35 million cap hit, could be dealt if the Blueshirts are willing to assume up to 50 percent of his contract.

Alex Georgiev was in goal for his 15th start and first since a 1-0 defeat to the Flyers on Jan. 29. The Blueshirts are now 7-8 with the Bulgarian starting. … Former Rangers sixth and seventh defensemen John Moore and Steven Kampfer were healthy scratches for Boston.