DAILY TROUBLE

Trade deadline grind, lengthy season wears on young Blueshirts

CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Maybe David Quinn can’t keep track of what day of the week it is. Maybe he often doesn’t know the exact date. Maybe he didn’t know this past Thursday was Valentine’s Day until he woke up.

But as the first-year Rangers coach is reminded daily, the trade deadline is coming Feb. 25. With it, there could be drastic changes to his roster, and what his lineup might look like after that time is something he just hasn’t had the time even to fathom.

“I have not [thought about it], not for one second. You just really are dialed in, going day to day,” Quinn said after his team practiced here at the Penguins facility, about a half-hour outside of Pittsburgh, in preparation for facing them Sunday afternoon.

“I have not thought about it. A lot of times I don’t know what day it is. I don’t know what date. I didn’t even know it was Valentine’s Day the other day until I woke up in the morning. It’s pretty pathetic, but I don’t. That’s just the profession we’re in.”

Yet the profession of general manager Jeff Gorton is to navigate the waters leading up to this pivotal point in the process of this rebuild. There is an absolutely fluid situation between Gorton and the agents of his two biggest possible trade pieces, Kevin Hayes and Mats Zuccarello. That fluidity carries over into Gorton’s discussions around the league for what type of return he might re- ceive in a trade for either one. Comparing those two evaluations is where Gorton is going to have to make the tough decisions.

Meanwhile, it is left to Quinn to figure out whom to put on the ice every night. It still remains true that he was hired in the hopes of developing the young players in the system, and near the top of that list is 19-yearold forward Filip Chytil. For the second time this season, Quinn made Chytil a healthy scratch, this time in Friday’s 6-2 win at Buffalo, and he wasn’t ruling out a second straight benching Sunday afternoon — even if that is not ideal.

“I do not want him sitting. I want him in the lineup,” Quinn said. “I have to wrestle with [if ] I think one more game is the right message or get him right back in.”

The grind of this season has obviously taken a toll on Chytil, whose game predictably has gone through dramatic highs and lows but recently has neared its lowest point thus far. The affable Czech even let out a big sigh and handled the English language rather well when asked about how he feels after playing in 55 of the first 57 games.

“I’ve never played so many games before in a season,” Chytil said. “I feel well. Obviously, [the] times before, older guys help me to recover. I need rest, I come to realize.”

Part of the decision for Quinn might come with what the rest of the lineup might look like. For the past three games, he has played with a lopsided lineup of 11 forwards and seven defensemen, rotating Brendan Smith in for a handful of forward shifts throughout. On Friday, Brady Skjei got hurt midway through the second period and Smith moved back to defense.

But with Skjei seeming like he could play Sunday, and with fellow defenseman Fredrik Claesson also being cleared to play for the first time since suffering his right-shoulder injury Jan. 12, there are quite a few decisions for Quinn to make.

This is also the time bodies start breaking down all around the league and injuries get more rampant. That is why teams that fancy themselves contenders for the Stanley Cup like to add depth — part of what makes Hayes and Zuccarello, among others on the Rangers roster, so attractive.

So for now, Quinn is only thinking day by day. But soon, the deadline is coming and his team could look drastically different.

“Nine days?” Quinn said. “I’m sure you’ll remind me — daily.”