TAMPA, Fla. — They don’t have quarterbacks or point guards in hockey.
Not under those names, anyway.
But that is exactly what Adam Fox is for the Rangers.
He’s listed as a defenseman on the roster, but the 24-year-old Long Island native, who wears No. 23 on his blue sweater, is the team’s quarterback and point guard wrapped in one brilliant, team-MVP package.
From afar, former Rangers playoff hero Stefan Matteau has watched Fox closely and is reminded of another former great defenseman and teammate on the Rangers’ 1994 Stanley Cup championship team: Brian Leetch.
“My God … Fox looks so nonchalant on the ice it looks like it’s a pick-up game for him,’’ Matteau told The Post by phone on Saturday. “It’s just like Leetch used to do, and [Sergei] Zubov. They would slow down the game to their own pace and the quality of the plays would be incredible.
“You knew Fox was going to be outmuscled in the games in the corners against Carolina [in the last series], but he adjusted his game by outsmarting everyone. And the passes that he makes over and over and over are just incredible. It’s hard to defend.
“The plan is to hit him. Tampa Bay knows it has to be physical on Fox, but they cannot push him off his game, because he’s so smart he avoids all those hits and makes those fantastic passes.’’
Fox is putting up Leetch-like numbers on offense. In 16 playoff games entering the Game 3 showdown Sunday with the Lightning at Amalie Arena, Fox is tied with center Mika Zibanejad for the Rangers’ lead with 25 points — five goals and 17 assists.
It was his cross-ice sliding pass to Kaapo Kakko late in the first period of Game 2 on Friday night at the Garden that produced a 2-1 Rangers lead they never relinquished en route to a 3-2 win and a 2-0 series lead.
Leetch, in the Rangers’ 1994 Cup-winning run, led the league with 34 playoff points and won the Conn Smythe Trophy. Fox is having that kind of postseason.
“He’s played outstanding,’’ Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. “He moves the puck so well — in both zones, the D-zone and the offensive zone. He’s really the leader of our team and has made some great plays and plays big minutes for us every night.’’
Sounds exactly like a quarterback or a point guard — or both.