SUNRISE, Fla. — The Rangers’ pair of top-two overall picks have been joined at the hip pretty much since the ping pong balls rose from the machine to give Jeff Gorton the rights to select Alexis Lafreniere with the No. 1 overall selection in 2020.

Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko underwent the same initial struggles upon reaching the NHL and dealt with the same lack of opportunity in the top six. They were together on the Kid Line two years ago, central to the Rangers’ run to the conference final. Kakko finished with 40 points last season, Lafreniere with 39.

Kakko, a year older, had an extra year of experience and maybe a little less expectation on account of being drafted second overall as opposed to first and because being a French-Canadian center of attention is a unique thing in the NHL. But the narrative around the two players was, for all intents and purposes, pretty similar coming into this season.

It doesn’t feel that way anymore now, does it?

Lafreniere got his top-six chance under this coaching staff and ran with it, putting up 57 points and finding a perfect fit on a line with Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck that has played together from the jump this season.

Whatever problem Gerard Gallant had with playing him on the right wing clearly was misplaced.

And in the playoffs, Lafreniere has only vindicated himself further. The pair of goals he scored in Game 3 against the Panthers only added more evidence atop the pile that was already there.

It took awhile, but Lafreniere looks like a franchise player at age 22.

The Rangers need to think about how to get him more ice time in the future and maybe even now.

They need to take into consideration this summer what Lafreniere’s next contract will look like, and it might serve them well to think long-term — as in buying off a year or two of his eventual unrestricted free agency, which would mean a six-year or seven-year deal — when they are negotiating his next extension.

As for Kakko, there’s a debate to be had over whether his future is in New York at all after a healthy scratch in Game 2 of these conference finals punctuated a postseason in which his production has been lacking.

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He missed some time because of injury in the regular season, but his point total of 19 was less than half of what he put up a season ago.

If Kakko was trying to hide his feelings about being scratched on Monday, he did a poor job. He described his reaction to it as unhappy, said he wasn’t given a reason and didn’t give a direct answer when asked about Peter Laviolette’s communication with him on the matter.

That’s not a good sign, especially because a decision on Kakko’s future is needed a lot sooner than one on Lafreniere’s.

By virtue of being a year older, Kakko is hitting restricted free agency one year sooner, this July 1.

There’s not much question that Kakko is a useful NHLer. He works well below the hash marks and on the walls, holds onto pucks and plays a responsible two-way game.

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But the scoring and production just hasn’t been there enough to justify giving him a consistent top-six role, even as the spot next to Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad has been up for grabs in every training camp since Pavel Buchnevich was traded prior to the 2021-22 season.

What Kakko and the Rangers alike need to ask is whether he can reach another level here, and if not, whether they are comfortable with this being his role for the foreseeable future.

That’s a much different question than anyone is asking about Lafreniere.

With Post expert Larry Brooks off from the newsletter this week, we did some quick Q-and-A to get Larry’s takes on the series:

ES: If you’re Peter Laviolette, what are you doing with the lineup in Game 4? Matt Rempe didn’t play late in Game 3, so there’s a question there. Kreider and Zibanejad have struggled to produce at five-on-five. The power play hasn’t scored yet in the series. There’s a case to shake things up.

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LB: Obviously Laviolette did not trust Rempe enough to give him more than a single 22-second shift after the second period. I think the coach gets spooked too easily on the road when Rempe is penalized on a borderline/reputation call. I’d stay with Rempe, but I doubt Laviolette is going to want to cut down the bench that way again. If Blake Wheeler is indeed game-ready, this might be the time. If not, Jonny Brodzinksi is the alternate option. So is Adam Edstrom, but there is no indication Rempe’s 6-foot-7 escape-room companion has a chance of getting in. I’d stay the same, but I expect the coach to change it up.

ES: You mentioned in your story Sunday night how similar this team is to the 2011-12 team in terms of mentality being a major strength. That team ended up running out of gas in the conference final. How much of a concern is that for you with this team, whether it’s in the conference final or the Cup Final?

LB: Excellent point. John Tortorella cut down his bench way too soon in the tournament. That’s a concern. There is a significant difference, though, in that the Black-and-Blueshirts were forced into a seven-game series in each of the first two rounds while this group dispatched with the Caps and Canes in 10 games combined. The 2011-12 team had two days between Ottawa in the first round and Washington in the second round. They also had two days between the second round and the conference final. This team had a week between Washington and Carolina and six days between Carolina and Florida.

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ES: Can the Rangers keep winning the way they won Game 3? And what’s the most important thing for them to fix ahead of Tuesday?

LB: It’s unlikely they’d be able to pull off a reprise, but not impossible with their resilient mentality and Igor Shesterkin’s Conn Smythe-worthy play. They have to make quicker decisions to beat the forecheck. Quite obviously, they have to fix the power play.

Zibanejad made a fair point in response to questions about his line’s struggles on offense, noting he, Kreider and Filip Chytil have played Aleksander Barkov’s line to a 0-0 draw during their shared minutes in the series.

The Panthers have generated the majority of chances in those crucial minutes: The Rangers account for just 35.71 percent of expected goals over 23:06 when Zibanejad and Barkov have shared the ice at five-on-five.

But there’s something to be said for the fact that the scoresheet itself has been even, though the Rangers of course want better than that.

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“It’s a fine balance,” Zibanejad said. “Beause it’s good to be responsible defensively. When you don’t score, it’s not a good thing offensively. You’re playing against a guy that can do both and a line can do both. So I think at the end of the day, as long as you get the wins, it’s obviously on an individual standpoint, you want to do whatever you can to play your best game, to contribute. But some games, at times, you just have to be able to value and more see what the scenarios in the game or the shifts within the game, how they are.

“We know their line, and obviously Barkov won the Selke [Trophy], too. So that part of his game obviously makes it harder for us, but at the same time, he’s been scoring at a pretty high rate, too. For us, we’re not trying to go out there and play 0-0, but at the same time, if we don’t get the offense that we want and expect, then we have to make sure that we have a defensive responsibility to be accountable to as well.

“Because of that, the suggestion [that] we just try to go more on the offensive track and shoot for offense, I don’t know if that’s gonna be the best for us.”