When the Rangers traded Derek Stepan for futures within two weeks of buying out Dan Girardi in the wake of the club’s disappointing second-round defeat to Ottawa last spring, “retool” became the operative off-season term applied by the administration.

And it all made perfect sense. The core had taken the Blueshirts as far as it could, peaking with the 2014 trip to the Cup final and the 2014-15 Presidents’ Trophy-winning season. There’s not a soul who could rationally have argued otherwise. Stepan was coming up on an absolute no-trade clause on a contract that carried a hefty annual cap hit that made him a less desirable commodity on the market than his value on the ice connoted.

It was time to turn it over, if not a year past time, and even if it would mean missing the playoffs for the first time since 2010.

The problem, though, with this 2017-18 that continued with Tuesday’s dedicated, blue-collar 5-1 victory over the Flyers at the Garden that boosted the Blueshirts back into the first wild-card spot in the Metro’s game of leapfrog, is an absence of retooling to any tangible degree. They haven’t turned it over. The younger generation hasn’t assumed added responsibility. That, rather than the loose play that’s marked most of the last month, is the season’s most disappointing aspect.

Because the Blueshirts are on the bubble with essentially the same-old, same-old. Look at the changes from last year. David Desharnais has effectively (alternate meaning) replaced Stepan. Boo Nieves/Peter Holland has assumed Oscar Lindberg’s spot. Paul Carey is the fourth-liner who is skating in Tanner Glass’ stead. And Kevin Shattenkirk has taken the spot that belonged to Girardi.

Informed conjecture through the offseason and training camp focused on how many of the kids — including Tony DeAngelo, Neal Pionk and Alexei Bereglazov on the blue line and Lias Andersson and Filip Chytil up front — would force their way onto the squad. No one, and this most assuredly includes general manager Jeff Gorton — foresaw a defense that would include both Nick Holden and Steven Kampfer. No one would have forecast such a significant role for Desharnais.

Regarding this season, management’s greatest summer miscalculation was that Andersson, snapped with the seventh-overall selection acquired in the Stepan swap, would be NHL-ready from the start. It is to Gorton’s credit that he did not force the 19-year-old into a role for which he was not ready — as, say, the team did with Manny Malhotra all those years ago — but the Swede’s need for further development left a crater at center that has reverberated throughout the lineup.

Mika Zibanejad cannot duplicate Stepan’s ability to match against the opposition’s top guns. That has forced coach Alain Vigneault to transform Kevin Hayes into a checking center and in turn elevate the status of Desharnais. And when inevitable injuries have struck, the Blueshirts have had to move J.T. Miller into the middle, where he has been far less effective and dynamic than on the wing.

Had Chytil, the 21st-overall selection, been able to make the entirely unanticipated jump to Broadway at the age of 18, that would have eliminated some issues. But after a two-game cameo, the Czech was sent to Hartford in order to acclimate himself to the North American game. And again, credit to the organization for not forcing the issue.

On defense, here we are in the middle of January, and there are DeAngelo and Pionk in the AHL, Bereglazov in the KHL, and Holden on the first pair. It isn’t as if Henrik Lundqvist is facing his 90 nightly shots (poetic license) — the 26 shots for the Flyers the first time since Dec. 9 an opponent recorded under 30 — behind a green blue line. In this regard, it appears as if the Rangers are spinning their wheels.

A caveat here. The Post has learned that management is weighing sending Andersson to the Wolf Pack once the center completes rehab on the shoulder he injured captaining Sweden to the silver medal in the World Juniors. If the center proves capable, he likely would be in New York playing for the Rangers, rather than back in Gothenburg playing for Frolunda, by the Feb. 26 trade deadline.

And it is conceivable that Pionk and DeAngelo are gaining experience in Hartford that will prove greater benefit than not-ready-for-prime-time trial runs in New York. Everyone should keep an open mind on this. Maybe the retool is in effect, but off-Broadway.

That is a possibility. But it is also a requirement in order for this bubble season to become a productive one in New York.