Robitaille, Samuelsson Dealt for Zubov, Nedved

The New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins, both coming off disappointing playoffs last spring, made a trade Thursday involving four high-profile players that changes the makeup of each team.

The Rangers acquired seven-time all-star left wing Luc Robitaille, 29, and combative defenseman Ulf Samuelsson, 31, from the Penguins for high-scoring defenseman Sergei Zubov, 25, and underachieving center Petr Nedved, 23.

“The coaching staff and myself [were] committed to making changes this summer to shore up the team,” said Neil Smith, Ranger general manager. “It wasn’t easy to trade Sergei Zubov. He’s a star player in the league. We just feel that the trade was an overwhelming strengthening of our lineup.”

Former King Robitaille and Samuelsson are the fifth and sixth players the Rangers have acquired since being swept by the Philadelphia Flyers in the second round of the playoffs. Forwards Wayne Presley and Ray Ferraro and defensemen Doug Lidster and Bruce Driver are the others.

Samuelsson makes the Rangers tougher on defense, and Robitaille gives them scoring punch they frequently lacked last season.

The Penguins’ purge began after they lost in five games to the New Jersey Devils in the first round. The team was hamstrung by the loss of Mario Lemieux for the entire season, but defenseman Larry Murphy and forwards Kevin Stevens and Shawn McEachern were traded and defenseman Kjell Samuelsson was not re-signed.

“There were a lot of negatives to Mario’s being out of the lineup last year, but we drew some positives out of it too,” said Craig Patrick, Penguin general manager. “We found we were a little old and a little slow, and we needed to improve ourselves to compete at the top level. We’re a lot younger and a lot faster.”