There were no promises of playoffs or guarantees of championships, now or down the road. Despite the optimism surrounding the Rangers, there was no pomp and circumstance in kicking off this training camp on Thursday.

Instead, team president John Davidson was his usual measured self after his young squad officially reported and went through physicals, set to be followed by on-ice testing Friday and the first real practice Saturday.

“When you go into a year like this, I want improvement, for sure,” Davidson said in his first state-of-the-organization address, his term now four months old, while the team remains in a rebuilding mode despite adding some very high-end talent this summer.

“This is a very close league. It’s a very humbling league. We’re not going into the league of 15 years ago, when the average age [of the players] was way up there, [and we have] a bunch of 19-year-olds. This league’s young.

“So, I mean, playoffs is a goal, for sure. But there’s got to be improvement, the right way, that you can count on long term, to get something with gratification out of the season.”

Improvement in itself won’t be all that hard, as the Rangers have missed the playoffs in two straight seasons and haven’t made it out of the second round since 2015 — the real last hurrah of that group that came oh-so-close to winning it all. The remnants of that group are few and far between now, with new faces crowding the marquee.

It starts with The Bread Man, Artemi Panarin, the biggest free-agent name on the market, who signed a seven-year, $81.5 million deal to be with the franchise he targeted from the beginning. Davidson, who knew the Russian winger as well as anyone during their two years together in Columbus, called Panarin “a young 27 [years old]. He’s going to fit, and he’ll be very, very good for quite some time.”

Then came the long-coveted righty-shot defenseman, Jacob Trouba, obtained in a trade with the Jets. The 25-year-old American then signed a seven-year, $56 million deal and is expected to contribute big minutes in all situations.

Then comes the young guns, starting with the No. 2-overall pick from June, Kaapo Kakko, and a first-rounder from 2018, Vitali Kravtsov. Both will have all the chance in the world to make the team. Harvard defenseman Adam Fox also comes in as somewhat of an elder statesman at 21, but he seems poised to compete for a top-four role.

And behind the bench making the decisions still will be David Quinn, entering his second season as a headman on Broadway and with quite a task in front of him.

“With the air of optimism, a lot of it is the coach,” Davidson said. “Coach Quinn is quite a character. First of all, he’s a very good coach, obviously, from somebody who watched last year from afar. I’ve watched him have meetings with the other coaches late in the summer here, and he’s a great communicator. I think he’s a guy that knows how to get the best out of players.”

Of course, there are quite a few big question marks to go with all this optimism, as Davidson was first to point out the lack of depth at center. Then comes the questions about how much goalie Henrik Lundqvist has left in the tank at age 37, and what will happen with a handful of players on the final year of their contracts — most notably, Chris Kreider.

So for all the reasons for hopeful anticipation of the regular-season opener at the Garden against the Jets on Oct. 3, Davidson has tried to temper expectations — both internally and externally. But from inside the renovated training facility in Tarrytown that is still under construction, optimism abounds.

“There’s an air of excitement around here, from the new facility to the young players with talent that are coming with some veteran players we added to the lineup,” Davidson said. “Everybody’s optimistic.”