With the Artemi Panarin saga finally reaching a conclusion with his trade Wednesday to the Kings, the Rangers entered their final game before the NHL break for the Winter Olympics — and the corresponding league-wide roster freeze — with the knowledge that their devolving season eventually will resume with more work to do for general manager Chris Drury to retool the roster for 2026-27 and beyond.

Panarin, who inked a two-year contract extension worth $22 million with Los Angeles to bypass unrestricted free agency this summer, was dealt for junior forward prospect Liam Greentree and at least one conditional third-round draft pick, depending on Los Angeles’ postseason success.

The last-place Rangers already had played the previous three games without Panarin, who had been held out of the lineup in losses to the Islanders and the Penguins ahead of Thursday’s pre-Olympic finale against the Hurricanes at the Garden.

“Well, I just think the finality of it is finally here,” Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said when asked about Panarin’s official departure following an optional morning skate Thursday in Tarrytown, before the Rangers lost, 2-0, to the Hurricanes. “Sometimes just the anxiety of the uncertainty is more difficult to deal with than the finality of it. Everybody can move on.”

Sullivan said he wished the 34-year-old Panarin “the very best” in a conversation after the trade was announced Wednesday afternoon.

He added that he “already has addressed the circumstances” with the team, which began play Thursday night in a 3-12-2 tailspin to sink to the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings.

“It’s not [easy] because obviously we’re all in this thing to win,” Sullivan said. “We’re all wired to try to win. It’s a competitive league, it’s a competitive environment, and we’re all competitive and we want to win. So when you don’t have the ability to put one of your very best players in the lineup, it doesn’t help your chances. But I also understand that it’s just the reality of the circumstance, and it’s part of where we’re at right now. It’s my job to coach the guys that I have available each and every night, and that’s what we’re gonna do.”

With the 20-year-old Greentree slated to finish out his current season with OHL Windsor, the Rangers will continue to plug the gaping hole left by Panarin, their leading scorer, from within.

Will Cuylle mostly has skated in his spot the past several games alongside center Vincent Trocheck.

“You know that we’re not going to plug a player in, and he’s going to replace what Artemi does for this team,” Sullivan said. “I think what we’re trying to do is build a team game where we can replace it by committee, so to speak. I think we can do a better job at being harder to play against, giving up less opportunities on the defensive side, which should allow us an opportunity to create some offense off of that. But I don’t know that. We’re not plugging anybody in and saying, ‘Hey, you’re gonna go replace what our Artemi’s brought to this group.’ That would be unfair.”

In the meantime, Greentree — a 6-foot-2 scoring winger and the No. 26 overall pick by the Kings in the 2024 NHL Draft — will be afforded an opportunity to develop within the organization.

“Obviously, I had a conversation with [Drury] about it, and I know our hockey operations department is very excited about this player, and the possibility of him becoming an impact player in the NHL,” Sullivan said. “He’s certainly shown at the level he’s been at that he’s every bit that player. So we’re certainly excited to add him to our group, and we’ll see what happens moving forward. I think at the appropriate time, I will try to familiarize myself with him and his game, for sure.

“Obviously, Chris and I have had a lot of conversations around this and what the game plan is moving forward to try to reshape the organization and be as competitive as we can be in the most expeditious fashion. So this is part of the process. It’s not a new thing that has caught me by surprise. I understand it, and we’re working together to do our very best to try to accomplish what has been articulated to everyone.”

As recently as Saturday, the Islanders thought Cal Ritchie would be out through the Olympic break.

“I guess that’s why we should say day-to-day [instead of a specific timeline], isn’t it?” coach Patrick Roy joked Thursday morning, acknowledging that Ritchie would be in the Islanders’ lineup later that night against the Devils in the team’s last game before the three-week layoff. “But yeah, he felt great. So when a player feels ready to go, why not?”

Ritchie returned to the lineup to center Jonathan Drouin and Emil Heineman in the 3-1 Islanders win as Anthony Duclair — who played just 3:04 of Tuesday’s win over the Penguins after failing to track Justin Brazeau on Pittsburgh’s opening goal — drew out as a healthy scratch.

“He’s been perfect and he’ll be fine,” Roy said of Duclair, who has been benched midgame twice in the span of a couple weeks. “I have zero worries, concern about him. He’ll be fine.”

The 21-year-old Ritchie did not look at all hindered by the injury, giving a spark throughout 13:54 of ice time in which he looked right at home as a second-line center — a notable development should it hold when the season resumes.

“He was good,” Roy said. “Oh my god he was good. He made some great plays with the puck, defended well. I was very happy with his play.”

Ritchie, who attempted to skate in the morning before the Islanders faced the Flyers on Jan. 26 but “tweaked something,” said he progressed quickly after that.

“Had to take a bit of time off,” Ritchie told The Post. “Each day was, just see how it felt, get on the ice and do a lot of rehab. So I feel good.”

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There was no thought of taking the cautious route and giving himself three extra weeks to rehab. Ritchie felt he was ready to play, so he played.

“For me, I just want to help the team,” the 21-year-old said. “Every game is so big right now coming down the stretch. I just want to play and try to help the team.”

Ondrej Palat appeared emotional following a tribute video from the Devils in his first game back at Prudential Center.

Palat was in his fourth season with New Jersey when the Devils traded him to the Islanders just over a week ago.

“It’s been a good four years here,” Palat said. “Have good memories of this rink for sure.”“Have good memories of this rink for sure.”

The Islanders haven’t looked like the best versions of themselves in a while, and they didn’t break that streak Thursday.

What they did do was drag themselves over the line and into the NHL’s Olympic pause, as Bo Horvat gave his team a late winner and a 3-1 victory over the Devils at the Prudential Center in his last game before flying to Italy to represent Team Canada.

The break, to put it mildly, is badly needed, with the Islanders feeling the effects of a condensed schedule over the last month through which they barely managed to tread water.

“It wasn’t pretty at times, for sure. We know that. We weren’t as good as we can be,” Ryan Pulock told The Post. “But I think the important part when you know that is just about finding a way. You have to be a good team to find ways when maybe you’re tired, maybe whatever it is, you dig deep. And I feel like this team has done that a lot throughout the year.”

There were points Thursday when it looked like they would finally succumb.

The Islanders took on pressure, especially during the second period.

They struggled to hit the net, putting just 14 of 45 attempts on goal.

They ceded chances off the rush and managed the puck poorly against a Devils side without Jack Hughes and with far more reason to have their minds on the beach than the Islanders.

Thanks to Ilya Sorokin and Adam Pelech, whose kick-save block on Lenni Hameenaho’s one-timer at 11:07 of the second stopped a no-doubt goal, the Islanders still went into the third tied at one, with every chance at redeeming themselves.

That was when they picked their game up and started to haul their way back into it.

Ondrej Palat, Marc Gatcomb and Simon Holmstrom piled up chances and though the flow was still missing from both teams, the momentum seemed back with the visitors.

Like much of the night, the Islanders were not doing much with what they were given.

Finally, with 3:27 to go, Bo Horvat mugged Nico Hischier off a faceoff in the Islanders’ zone and backhanded the puck past Jake Allen for a 2-1 lead.

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“It wasn’t a clean draw win and I saw it laying there and tried to battle as hard as I could to get it,” said Horvat, who has five points in his last two games before making his Olympic debut next Thursday with Team Canada. “Saw it had landed near the net. Allen tried to poke check. Thankfully I got around it, slipped it five-hole.”

Mat Barzal added an empty-netter for good measure, but it was only fitting that the game was won by Horvat.

It was fitting, too, that just like for much of the last month, the Islanders gutted out two points with their meter looking dangerously close to empty for much of the 60 minutes.

Though Cal Ritchie provided a jolt of energy in his return from a lower-body injury, the Islanders played a perimeter game, at best, Thursday.

Less generously, they managed the puck poorly, with Jonathan Drouin guilty of one of the season’s most heinous turnovers toward the end of the first period.

The fourth line, though, was terrific, with Casey Cizikas scoring the opener from his own rebound before Hischier’s goal tied it at one for New Jersey.

JG Pageau had a great night at the dots and his line with Anders Lee and Holmstrom was up ice regularly.

The top line, quiet through two periods, woke up in the third in a big way.

It was enough.

Just enough.

“A lot of these games [last year] we just kinda found a way to lose,” Pulock said. “And this year, we’re finding a way to win.

“… When it goes right for you a couple times, you build some confidence in that and you feed off that and you remember being in those situations. You don’t freeze under pressure, you take it head on. I feel like that’s been a lot of big moments throughout this year where we’ve gone at it head on and not sat back and hoped.”

The Artemi Panarin trade has completely taken the rest of the intrigue and the energy out of the Garden.

With the Panarin saga finally reaching a conclusion with his trade to the Kings, the Rangers played their final game before the NHL break for the Winter Olympics — and the corresponding league-wide roster freeze — with the knowledge that their devolving season eventually will resume with more work to do for general manager Chris Drury to retool the roster for 2026-27 and beyond.

That pre-Olympic finale Thursday night only represented more of the same for the crashing Blueshirts, however, as they fell for the fourth straight game without Panarin with a sleepy 2-0 loss to the Hurricanes at the Garden.

It marked the ninth time they have been shut out this season — and inexplicably, the seventh time on home ice — and head coach Mike Sullivan wasn’t pleased with the effort.

“I thought they outplayed us. … The first two periods weren’t nearly good enough,” Sullivan said afterward. “My message to the group was, I will acknowledge that we’re in a little bit of a difficult circumstance and none of us really want to be in this position. … But the reality is we are where we are.

“I thought tonight that we lacked a certain competitive spirit. It’s simply unacceptable on our part.”

Panarin, who inked a two-year contract extension worth $22 million with Los Angeles to bypass unrestricted free agency this summer, was dealt for junior forward prospect Liam Greentree and at least one conditional third-round draft pick, depending on Los Angeles’ postseason success.

The last-place Rangers previously had played without Panarin while their leading scorer was held out of the lineup in two defeats to the Islanders last week and another against the Penguins before Wednesday’s trade.

Before the game, Sullivan had said he wished the 34-year-old winger “the very best” in a conversation after the trade was announced.

He added that he “already had addressed the circumstances” of potential additional trades with his squad, which is now mired in a 3-13-2 tailspin to sink to the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings at 22-29-6.

“From the drop of the puck, we got outplayed all night,” said captain J.T. Miller, who will join Sullivan as part of Team USA in Italy. “It wasn’t good enough. We wanted to go into the break feeling good about ourselves, and it’s quite the opposite right now. So it sucks.”

With the 20-year-old Greentree slated to finish out his current season with OHL Windsor, the Rangers will continue to plug the gaping hole left by Panarin from within.

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Will Cuylle mostly has skated in his spot the past several games alongside center Vincent Trocheck.

“You know that we’re not going to plug a player in, and he’s going to replace what Artemi does for this team,” Sullivan said. “I think what we’re trying to do is build a team game where we can replace it by committee, so to speak. I think we can do a better job at being harder to play against, giving up less opportunities on the defensive side, which should allow us an opportunity to create some offense off of that. But we’re not plugging anybody in and saying, ‘Hey, you’re gonna go replace what Artemi’s brought to this group.’ That would be unfair.”

Carolina’s Andrei Svechnikov gathered in a failed clearance attempt by Vladislav Gavrikov and opened the scoring with a wrister from the slot past Quick for a 1-0 lead 6:26 into the game.

Mika Zibanejad had a strong chance on the power play later in the period, but he rang the puck off the crossbar and the Rangers generated little else against Carolina goalie Brandon Bussi (16 saves).

Quick made 41 stops to keep the Rangers within one despite a lopsided shot disparity before Jordan Staal added an empty-netter in the final minute.

“[Quick played] extremely well,” Sullivan said. “I think he did his very best to drag us into the fight. But we needed more guys to do that for us.”