Three years later, here is Marc Staal, about to play in the Stanley Cup final as a Panthers fixture, and here are the Rangers, still searching for a third-pair left defenseman to fill the hole that No. 18 left when he was traded to the Red Wings on Sept. 26, 2020.

It was a salary-cap move; everyone remembers that. It was a deal the Rangers and then-GM Jeff Gorton were so eager to make that they added a 2021 second-rounder to the mix so that Detroit would take Staal’s contract, which had one year to go at a $5.7 million cap hit.

In essence, the Blueshirts got nothing in return.

Staal, then 33 and a Blueblood of 13 seasons after having been selected 12th overall in the 2005 entry draft, had had a pretty decent 2019-20 season playing as Tony DeAngelo’s left side partner. It had been kind of a bounce-back season for the player with the sixth-most games (892) in franchise history.

But the Rangers wanted to clear space in that first year of the flat cap. They were toting a buyout charge of just over $6M on Kevin Shattenkirk. They would be hit with a buyout charge of $5.5M on Henrik Lundqvist. They needed to sign DeAngelo, Ryan Strome and Alex Georgiev to new contracts.

That was the offseason leading into the COVID-restricted, 56-game 2020-21. It was a bizarre time for a John Davidson-Gorton hierarchy that had initially pledged to address the team’s lack of fiber and sandpaper that had been exposed during the summer bubble sweep by Carolina but instead stood down and did essentially nothing in that regard.

Staal played two years for the Red Wings, the second on a one-year $2M free agent deal after his existing contract expired, appearing in all but 11 games over two seasons for rebuilding Detroit. He joined the Panthers on a one-year, $750,000 deal for this season, in which he played all 82 games as a mainstay for the Eastern champs.

The Rangers, meanwhile, have used 11 defensemen over the last three years on the third pair left side.

There was Jack Johnson, Brendan Smith and Jarrod Tinordi; Anthony Bitetto and Tarmo Reunanen; Libor Hajek and Zac Jones; Patrik Nemeth and Justin Braun; Ben Harpur and Niko Mikkola.

Remember when the plan was to have DeAngelo shift to the left?

Neither do I.

Now, because Mikkola will be unaffordable to retain as an impending free agent, the Rangers will be seeking to fill that spot again. Maybe Jones will benefit from a change behind the New York bench and will be able to grab the position. Maybe Matt Robertson will fulfill expectations following his 49th-overall selection in 2019 and earn a roster spot. Maybe Harpur will win the job.

Maybe the Rangers will sign a free agent in the $1M price range the team can afford.

Maybe Marc Staal will be available.

Another Stanley Cup participant also has Rangers ties.

Jonathan Marchessault — listed, by the way, as No. 84 Jonathan Audy-Marchessault on the official roster — did play for the Rangers in the 2011 Traverse City tournament after having been signed to an AHL contract.

The then 20-year-old recorded 64 points (24-40) to tie with Kris Newbury (25-39) for the scoring lead of the then-named Connecticut Whale, but the winger rejected an entry-level contract offer from the Blueshirts to become a free agent. Marchessault believed the path to the NHL was blocked in New York.

He signed instead with the Blue Jackets, for whom the 5-foot-9 winger played two games. He spent three seasons in the AHL, got a 47-game run with Tampa Bay over two seasons, and then bounced to Florida in 2016-17, for whom he scored 30 goals before somehow being left unprotected in the 2017 Vegas expansion draft. He has become a star on the Strip, scoring 149 goals in 432 games.

Did the Rangers let him get away? Not really. The Blue Jackets let him get away. The Lightning let him get away. The Panthers gave him away.

But let’s be honest, here. If Marchessault had signed with the Rangers, he’d have undoubtedly been a throw-in to either the 2013 deal with Columbus for Derick Brassard, et al; the 2014 deal with Tampa Bay for Marty St. Louis; or, if he had somehow survived that long, the 2015 deal with Arizona for Keith Yandle.

Don’t you think?