The Rangers got fairly lucky in their rebuild.

Following The Letter, it took the Blueshirts just four seasons to get back into the (non-Bubble) playoffs and reestablish themselves as contenders. As these things go, that is a strong pace — just ask the Red Wings.

A big piece of that comes down to good drafting and lottery luck: The Rangers twice picked in the top-two despite having odds of just 7.5 and 12.5 percent, respectively. Even so, there are still some picks the organization might make differently given the chance.

Since it is a slow time on the hockey calendar, why not look into those picks they might like to do over?

As the Rangers have yet to see dividends from their past three drafts, with 2021 first-round pick Brennan Othmann potentially making the jump this season, we’re excepting those from our redraft, instead looking at those between 2017 and 2020, when the Rangers made seven first-round picks in total that would have an outsized impact on the current makeup of the team.

Let’s get to it.

2017
Pick 7: Filip Chytil
Actual: Lias Andersson

Pick 21: Jason Robertson
Actual: Filip Chytil

The Rangers had two first-round picks in Chicago that year, and absolutely nailed the second one. It feels a little bit like cheating to retcon the Blueshirts into taking Chytil seventh instead of 21st, but in a real redraft, he might go even higher. Nico Hischier and Miro Heiskanen are the only two 2017 draftees who have played more games, and just 10 players have scored more points.

Chytil is a huge part of the Rangers’ core, could challenge to be their second-line center this season and it makes more sense to keep him than it would to take a chance on someone such as Nick Suzuki, whom Vegas drafted 13th overall, or Josh Norris, who went to San Jose with the 19th pick.

As for Robertson, well, that’s pretty much a no-brainer. The Stars made the best pick of the draft at No. 39 overall by taking the Arcadia, Calif., native. Robertson finished fourth in Hart Trophy voting last season, scoring 46 goals with 63 assists. He’s a superstar in his prime who could fit on any team, and if we were redrafting for every team instead of just the Rangers, he would be an easy No. 2 overall pick behind Cale Makar.

2018
Pick 9: Noah Dobson
Actual: Vitali Kravtsov

Pick 22: K’Andre Miller
Actual: K’Andre Miller

Pick 28: Alexander Romanov
Actual: Nils Lundqvist

So we come to that time-honored portion of a redraft: screwing with rivals.

In all seriousness, taking a pair of Islanders defensemen just makes sense for the Rangers here. You could make a case for Flyers winger Joel Farabee with the ninth pick or to take someone such as Calen Addison or Sean Durzi at No. 28. Three defensemen is a bit of a tough sell for a team that has as strong a blue line as the Rangers do, and we almost went with Farabee over Dobson.

If they’d had an additional top-10 defenseman in the pipeline, it’s worth wondering whether the Rangers would have felt a need to trade for Jacob Trouba in the summer of 2019. The answer is probably yes — none of these three players became an everyday lineup presence until 2021 — but you never know.

Instead of avoiding a deal for Trouba altogether, maybe this scenario would have opened the door for the Rangers to let Ryan Lindgren walk after this season because Romanov plays the left side and would be knocking on the door for top-four minutes. Or at least one of the Rangers’ blueliners could be used as trade bait.

In any case, this would give the Rangers an abundance of riches on the blue line, where a young Zac Jones already will face challenges for playing time with the team having brought in Erik Gustafsson.

2019
Pick 2: Trevor Zegras
Actual: Kaapo Kakko

This is the toughest pick of this exercise. There’s a case to stick with Kakko, who hasn’t played near his ceiling but has proven an important piece of the Rangers’ success. There’s a case for the Red Wings’ Moritz Seider, who could have a Norris Trophy or two in his future. And there’s a case for Sabres center Dylan Cozens, whose numbers are similar to Zegras’ but with a better team.

So why Zegras?

First of all, we can’t take Seider after taking three defensemen in the first round the season prior.

Second, Zegras, the electrifying Ducks center, would have been a natural replacement for Ryan Strome after a breakout 2021-22 season, freeing up cap space the Rangers instead used to sign Vincent Trocheck and alleviating some of the crunch they felt over the past year.

Third, Zegras on Broadway would be such a perfect marketing fit that even the NHL couldn’t screw it up. That is too much fun to pass up.

2020
Pick 1: Tim Stutzle
Actual: Alexis Lafreniere

It’s too early to close the door on Lafreniere, but it’s also not especially controversial to say Stutzle has been the best player in this draft so far. The third overall pick has 75 more points than anyone else from his class with Lucas Raymond coming second and Lafreniere in fourth, a full 86 points back.

Stutzle leads the class in goals and assists, and played top-line minutes last season with the Senators, scoring 90 points — more than every Ranger except Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin. As of now, he’s the only established superstar from this draft class, though that could change soon with Raymond, Dawson Mercer and Jake Sanderson on the rise. All in all, a no-brainer.

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Adding Blake Wheeler, Nick Bonino, Tyler Pitlick, Alex Belzile, Gustafsson and Jonathan Quick was not the sexiest free-agency period the Rangers will ever have.

But it is worth giving some plaudits to Chris Drury for taking a tight salary-cap situation and managing to bring in a slew of new faces who can help bridge the gap until the next group of prospects is ready.

Standing still usually amounts to stagnation in any sport.

The Rangers made sure that Peter Laviolette and his staff would not be the only difference from a team that underachieved last season when bringing the band back together would have been the easy thing to do.

Take issue with the specifics if you want, but the underlying idea is a good way of going about things.

How Laviolette deploys Lafreniere and Kakko will be a huge storyline throughout training camp and the early part of the season.

Given that those two players, as well as Chytil, are relatively known commodities at this point, a better indication of how Laviolette plans to deal with young players might come in how he deals with Jones.

The 22-year-old defenseman will come into camp fighting for a spot, and doing so against a player who lined up 61 times for Laviolette’s Capitals last season in Gustafsson.

What happens there should be a stronger piece of foreshadowing for when Othmann and Will Cuylle are ready to fight for playing time than what happens with the Kid Line.