It seemed sensible all summer that by the Rangers’ regular-season opener on Thursday night at the Garden against the Jets, they would have put Brendan Smith on waivers and then assigned him to AHL Hartford. The move would have saved the club just over $1 million in salary-cap room, as his cap hit would have gone from $4.35 million to $3.275 million.

Instead, the club thought the 30-year-old Smith had such a good training camp that it not only kept him, but seemed to be slotting him in the lineup for the opener in a dual role as the fourth-line winger and penalty-killing defenseman.

“He does a lot of good things at forward,” second-year coach David Quinn said. “He brings energy, he brings physicality, he plays with an edge. Draws penalties; every game he draws penalties. It’s uncanny how he’s got that ability.”

It also helps that Smith can go back and play defense, especially when a man down. Quinn has faith in him during those situations, and with young defensemen such as Adam Fox, Libor Hajek and Tony DeAngelo in the lineup, Smith’s availability to fill that role could help.

“Having him be able to kill penalties on the blue line — and maybe, if anything happens, to be able to play defense — that’s a luxury,” Quinn said.

Quinn is ready to start the season with his top line projected at the beginning of training camp: Artemi Panari n-Mika Zibanejad-Pavel Buchnevich.



Behind them will be Chris Kreider-Ryan Strome-Kaapo Kakko, then Vlad Namestnikov-Brett Howden-Jesper Fast, then likely Brendan Lemieux-Lias Andersson-Smith.

If Smith is in, the likely healthy scratches will be Greg McKegg and Micheal Haley.

The defensive pairs seem to be set with Brady Skjei-Jacob Trouba, Marc Staal-DeAngelo and Hajek-Fox.

After Thursday, the Rangers play Saturday night in Ottawa and then not again until the following Saturday afternoon at home against the Oilers, followed by four more days off. It results in three games in 13 days to start the season.

“It’s a quirky schedule, for sure,” Quinn said. “Feel like I’m back in college.”

The first power-play unit is Trouba, Zibanejad, Panarin, Kreider and Buchnevich. The second is Fox, DeAngelo, Kakko, Lemieux and Strome.