Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford has liked Jason Zucker for a while.

Well before his team shortened its bench to three lines over the past week.

And well before Jake Guentzel suffered a severe shoulder injury a day before New Year’s Eve.

Even well before Rutherford reportedly tried to acquired Zucker this past summer in a deal that would have freed the Penguins of disgruntled forward Phil Kessel.

By Rutherford’s estimate, he has had his eye on Zucker for two or three years.

On Monday, Rutherford finally acquired Zucker from the Minnesota Wild. But the price was high.

The Penguins sent a conditional first-round pick in this year’s draft, high-end defensive prospect Calen Addison and disappointing forward Alex Galchenyuk for Zucker.

If the Penguins miss this season’s playoffs, they can defer the first-rounder until 2021.

Zucker has appeared in 45 games this season and has 29 points (14 goals, 15 assists). Primarily a left winger, he has reached the 30-goal mark once and the 20-goal mark three times during his nine-year career.

“He’s a good all-around player that can really shoot, can really move,” Rutherford said by phone. “Moves the puck around well. With his footspeed, he should fit into our style of play.”

What Rutherford really likes about the 28-year-old is the contractual control the team will have, as Zucker is signed through 2022-23 at a annual salary cap hit of $5.5 million.

“The nice thing about this deal is it’s not a rental,” Rutherford said. “For all intents and purposes, we have him for four years because we have him here now for a run (this season), then three more years. That made it a little bit easier to move a first-round pick and a good, young player.

“Playing with any one of our centers, but certainly (Sidney Crosby) or (Evgeni Malkin), where he’ll play in the top six, is going to give him a chance to succeed.”

Addison was one of the Penguins’ top prospects. A second-round pick in 2018, Addison has played in 39 games this season with the Lethbridge Hurricanes of the Western Hockey League and has 43 points (10 goals, 33 assists).

A member of Canada’s gold medal-winning team in this season’s IIHF World Junior Championship tournament, Addison, 19, had nine points (one goal, eight assists) in eight games during that tournament.

Zucker’s contract made it easier for Rutherford to deal away such valuable assets.

“It was hard,” Rutherford said. “But the fact that it’s not a rental player, and we’re getting a really good player, it’s a little bit easier. We like to think that our first pick is going to be near the end of the first round, so that makes it a little less difficult. Addison we liked. We think he’s a good player, that he’s going to play (in the NHL). But at the end of the day, when you’re getting a good player, you have to give something up for him.”

It would be a stretch to label Galchenyuk as such based on his 2019-20 season.

Galchenyuk, 25, has struggled. Injured for much of the early portion of the season, he has appeared in 43 games and has 17 points (five goals, 12 assists). The primary return in a trade that sent Kessel to the Arizona Coyotes last summer, Galchenyuk is in the final year of a contract with a salary cap hit of $4.9 million.

“He got behind at camp,” Rutherford said. “He had a groin pull. It was bothering him. He didn’t want to tell anybody. He was trying hard to do well, and he got behind. He never caught up. He got himself on the fourth line. He’s not a fourth-line player. He was pressing. He was trying hard. I give him credit. He never complained. He worked hard. Maybe didn’t fit our style of play. Maybe it was a little bit harder for him to play our style, and that’s how he found himself moving down the lineup. I wish him well.”

The Penguins might not be finished dealing with the trade deadline looming Feb. 24. With injured defensemen Brian Dumoulin (left ankle) and John Marino (facial bones) recovering from injuries, Rutherford is open to adding depth on the blue line. He just wants to take time to see how Dumoulin and Marino progress.

“We have a few games left here before the deadline,” Rutherford said. “We’ll really make an assessment of it probably in about 10 days. A few days before the deadline. And if we need something else, we’ll look at it then. That’s the nice thing about making the deal now. Let’s see how this fits. Let’s see where Marino and Dumoulin are at that point in time as far as when they are back. Then we’ll have a better idea if we want to add somebody else.”

There was no word if Zucker would be available for Tuesday’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning at PPG Paints Arena.

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