Michael Peca turbo-charging Rangers could get him hired away

I walked out of the Garden following Saturday’s 4-3 overtime victory over the Sabres thinking the Rangers probably aren’t going to be able to keep Michael Peca on their staff as an assistant coach for all that long.

In fact, unless there is a dramatic reversal of fortune in Buffalo, where the Sabres are staring at a 13th straight season out of the playoffs, I’d expect the Pegula ownership to seek permission to bring Peca back to the organization where he was captain as a player and a coach in their minor league system.

Don Granato in his fourth full season behind the Sabres bench. Everyone seems to like him. Everyone seems to believe he is a good coach.

Yet the team hasn’t been able to quite turn the corner under Granato despite a flurry of moves over the past three seasons by general manager Kevyn Adams and a succession of high draft selections.

Peca was the personification of the hard-edged, goonish-leaning group fostered in the late 1990s by then-head coach Lindy Ruff. He captained the Sabres to the 1999 final that was lost on Brett Hull’s in-the-crease overtime goal in Game 6 that gave the Stanley Cup to Dallas.

The center played another season and then sat out the entire 2000-01 season in a contract dispute. (Every once in a while, that happened back then. Petr Nedved sat out. So did Sean Burke. So did Nikolai Khabibulin.)

Peca’s holdout got him traded to the Islanders, where he hooked up with first-year, first-time coach Peter Laviolette to take the team to the playoffs after a seven-year drought. That was the beginning of a relationship that is bearing fruit for the Rangers.

Following retirement, Peca coached the Buffalo Junior Sabres. Laviolette hired him as a player development coach in Washington to work with the taxi squad during the 2020-21 season. No. 27 moved back to the Sabres organization to become head coach of Buffalo’s AHL affiliate in Rochester for two seasons before joining the Blueshirts’ staff this year.

This is Laviolette’s show. He is in on everything. He is the decider. But at the same time, the head coach is also a delegator.

Peca has been delegated to supervise the power play and faceoffs. His impact has been enormous.

Peca’s points of emphasis

The Rangers had gone nearly a decade without winning more than 50 percent of their draws. They ranked 23rd in the league at an aggregate 48.6 in two seasons under head coach Gerard Gallant, who put little emphasis on faceoffs.

Prior to that, they ranked 31st (and last) at 46.2 percent 0ver David Quinn’s three seasons behind the bench.

Over the nine seasons from 2014-15 through 2022-23, the Blueshirts ranked 30th at 47.8 percent.

Now, under Peca’s tutelage, the Rangers lead…