There are mounting cries for GM Chris Drury to do something and to do something now in the midst of these early-winter doldrums through which the Rangers have won just eight of their past 16 games (8-7-1) while allowing at least six goals in a game four times and four goals in a game eight times.

Unfortunately for the Blueshirts, it is not so simple to make trades in the month of January in a cap-driven NHL in which, according to CapFriendly, 17 teams are currently using long-term injured reserve to maintain compliance. Those teams’ caps are frozen in time.

Beyond the cap, it is too early for teams in the vast middle class to declare as buyers or sellers in a market that generally percolates only 10 days or so before the deadline, which is set for March 8 this year. There are examples of jumping the market, though those are somewhat rare.

Drury and the Rangers acquired Vlad Tarasenko and Niko Mikkola last Feb. 9, three weeks ahead of the 2023 deadline. The Islanders’ Lou Lamoriello moved earlier than that, getting Bo Horvat from the Canucks on Jan. 30. That was the same date on which Carolina GM Jim Rutherford acquired Doug Weight in 2006, a key move that triggered the Hurricanes’ run to the Stanley Cup.

So moves this month can be done, but Drury is also dealing with the uncertainty of Filip Chytil’s status, which has has created uncertainty not only about the team’s alignment but their cap situation.

If Chytil returns, the club will have limited space. If No. 72 cannot play (during the regular season), the club will have about another full-year $4 million with which to work. The landscape would be completely different.

The Rangers haven’t made a significant January trade in 10 years, since then-GM Glen Sather dealt Michael Del Zotto to Nashville in exchange for Kevin Klein on Jan. 22, 2014. The deal solidified the Blueshirts’ defense with Klein assuming the defensive defenseman’s role on the run to the final while paired with John Moore on the third tandem.

Klein played a major role the following season until he sustained a broken arm when struck flush by an Alexander Ovechkin drive. The defenseman then suffered a string of injuries that decreased his effectiveness and availability before retiring from the NHL at age 32 following 2016-17.

Sather made a handful of January trades. Predecessor Neil Smith made a blockbuster. Emile Francis made a few here and there.

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With about three weeks left in this January, let’s rank the eight most significant trades pulled off this month by the Rangers over the past 60 years.

1. Jan. 23, 2004 — Anson Carter to Washington for Jaromir Jagr

This was a deal about three years in the making.

Jagr became the primary force in leading the Rangers back to credibility after seven straight playoff misses by guaranteeing a return to the postseason in 2005-06 when the NHL reconvened after the 2004-05 season had been canceled by the owners’ lockout.

No. 68 then posted franchise records of 54 goals and 123 points in leading the Blueshirts to the tournament. A rookie goaltender named Henrik Lundqvist helped.

2. Jan. 20, 1990 — Tony Granato and Tomas Sandstrom to Los Angeles for Bernie Nicholls

In an alternate universe, the Rangers and Smith keep their kids and the club organically grows into a contending team worthy of ending a drought that was nearing half a century.

But instead, Smith got the shiny new toy who became the key figure in the trade with Edmonton at the start of the 1991-92 season for Mark Messier. ‘Nuf sed.

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3. Jan. 8, 2006 — Maxim Kondratiev to Anaheim for Petr Sykora

Kondratiev, a young defenseman who was obtained from Toronto in the 2004 deadline purge as the key piece coming back for Brian Leetch, was kind of a precursor to Libor Hajek. It didn’t quite work out for Kondratiev any more than it did for Hajek when he was the key piece coming back from Tampa Bay in the deal for Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller during the 2018 deadline purge.

Sykora, meanwhile, played the role of a key hired gun in the Rangers’ return to the playoffs in 2006.

4. Jan. 4, 1983 — Andre Dore to St. Louis for Glen Hanlon and Vaclav Nedomansky

This was a Craig Patrick deal that saw the Blueshirts acquire Hanlon, who would solidify the club’s netminding in the pre-John Vanbiesbrouck days.

5. Jan. 10, 1966 — John McKenzie to Boston for Reg Fleming

This turned out far better for the Bruins than it did for the Rangers, with Pie McKenize becoming an integral part of Bobby Orr’s Animals through the double Cup victories in the early 1970s.

Fleming was as willing, and as popular, a Ranger as there was those days. He dropped his gloves with anyone and was found to have contracted CTE upon examination following his death in 2009 at age 73.

6. Jan. 10, 2011 — Michal Rozsival to Phoenix for Wojtek Wolski

Rozsival’s play had deteriorated after signing a contract extension in 2008 and seemed ripe to be cap-buried in the AHL once McDonagh had been called up from Hartford that very week.

Instead, Sather turned the defenseman into Wolski, a one-time first-round selection. Wolski’s great contribution in New York was to be the punch line of a John Tortorella verbal jab, the coach curtly commenting, “Can’t get him out of the tub,” while No. 86 was convalescing from a physical matter.

Rozsival revived his career in Chicago and won Cups in 2013 and 2015.

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7. Jan. 17, 1991 — Aaron Miller to Quebec for Joe Cirella

Miller, who had been drafted 88th overall in the 1989 draft while entering the University of Vermont, was traded as a sophomore. The defenseman became part of the blue-line corps for the Cup-winning Avalanche in 1996 and 2001.

Cirella played for the Blueshirts through 1992-93.

8. Jan. 26, 1971 — Syl Apps Jr. and Sheldon Kannegiesser to Pittsburgh for Glen Sather

Emile had a surfeit of young centers behind a varsity group consisting of Jean Ratelle, Walt Tkaczuk and Pete Stemkowski, who had been acquired earlier in the year for, in effect, another young center named Don Luce. Curt Bennett would be traded later after Dennis Hextall and Juha Widing already had been sent away and Orland Kurtenbach was sacrificed in the 1970 expansion draft.

Emile was also always looking for toughness. That is what Sather brought, playing the pugilist’s role on Broadway through 1972-73. Apps became one of the finest two-way centers in the NHL for a decade-plus.