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Why Rangers face major dilemma about Artemi Panarin contract decision
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- Why Rangers face major dilemma about Artemi Panarin contract decision
Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images
New York Rangers general manager Chris Drury has pretty much wrapped up his offseason work. The Rangers changed coaches, firing Peter Laviolette after they missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs and bringing in Mike Sullivan, a two-time Stanley Cup winner with the Pittsburgh Penguins .
New York also signed veteran defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov to play on the left side of the top pair with Adam Fox . And they traded veteran forward Chris Kreider to the Anaheim Ducks and 25-year-old defenseman K'Andre Miller to the Carolina Hurricanes .
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Drury also prevented a potential offer-sheet issue by re-signing Will Cuylle, to a two-year contract with an average annual value of $3.9 million.
Now it's time for the GM to turn his attention to an even bigger issue.
Artemi Panarin is the best free-agent signing in Rangers history. It's not even close: The Russian left wing, who turns 34 on Oct. 30, has led the Rangers in scoring in each of his six seasons on Broadway since signing a seven-year contract on July 1, 2019. He's been an NHL First-Team All-Star twice (2020 and 2024) and a Second-Team All-Star once (2023). His 1.28 points per game are the most in team history, and the 120 points he put up in 2023-24 are the second-best single-season total since the Rangers entered the NHL in 1926. His 89 points last season (37 goals, 52 assists) were 27 more than runner-up Mika Zibanejad .
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The Rangers have been paying top dollar for all that production – Panarin's $11.64 million AAV is the seventh-highest in the NHL for 2025-26, and the six players ahead of him are all under 30.
But the pressing issue now is that Panarin can become an unrestricted free agent after next season. "Bread" became eligible to sign an extension on July 1. However, the Rangers don't appear to be in any rush to get his name on the dotted line.
Drury and owner James Dolan face a real dilemma: Do the Rangers re-sign Panarin, who will be 35 less than a month into any new contract – and if so, for how much and how long? Do the Rangers trade him, either before the season or prior to the NHL Trade Deadline in March if it becomes apparent that they're not going to make the playoffs? Or do they let things play out, see what kind of numbers Panarin puts up and whether the Blueshirts return to the playoffs before making a decision – risking the possibility of getting nothing if he walks?
Related: Neil Smith delivers hilarious quip about K'Andre Miller $60 million contract with Hurricanes
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Rangers options moving forward with Artemi Panarin
1. Rangers could re-sign Artemi Panarin
The Rangers face two immediate issues if they opt for this alternative: Salary and term.
Drury addressed the issue with the media earlier this month but wouldn't comment on whether he and Panarin's camp have started extension talks. They could sign him before camp or some time during the season, which is how they handled Igor Shesterkin a year ago.
Failing to re-sign Panarin could be extremely costly for a team that relies on him for a large chunk of its offense. But does Drury want to make an early commitment to a player whose production figures to drop off at some point — whether it's 2025-26 or sometime in the coming years? Especially if the Rangers remain hopeful that a younger UFA stud like, oh say, Connor McDavid , Kirill Kaprizov or Jack Eichel hits the open market next summer.
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And don't forget, as much as the Rangers want you to, that Panarin and MSG Sports each paid a financial settlement with a former employee who accused the star wing of sexual assault.
Dennis Schneidler-Imagn Images
So, faced with declining production in coming years and this other unseemly fact, the Rangers must make a very difficult decision with Panarin. Salary and term. And what does Panarin expect in each category, will go a long way to forcing the Rangers hand one way or the other.
2. Rangers could deal Artemi Panarin before season or prior to NHL Trade Deadline
If the Rangers decide not to lock up Panarin, they'll have to decide whether to let him play out his contract or trade him.
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The second option won't be easy. Panarin has a full no-move clause, meaning that he can't be traded or sent to the minors without his approval. The only way the Rangers could get rid of Panarin without his OK is to put him on waivers, as they did with forward Barclay Goodrow last summer. Goodrow, who excelled in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs after a disappointing regular season, was snapped up by the League's worst team, the San Jose Sharks , who had been on his "don't send me there" list – and neither he nor his suddenly ex-teammates were happy about it.
So, not only does Drury not want to ruffle feathers by pulling that same move with Panarin — who is only 1,000 times the player Goodrow is — the Rangers couldn't afford to just ship him away like that and not receive a single asset in return.
Drury again angered several veterans by basically forcing captain Jacob Trouba to accept a trade – he agreed to go to Anaheim in early December only after he was threatened with waivers and a demotion to Hartford of the American Hockey League. But the Rangers GM showed he might have learned something by keeping Kreider and his camp in the loop before the trade to the Ducks, then doing the same before sending Miller to Carolina earlier this month.
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The trade deadline scenario has two possibilities. If the Rangers rebound from 2024-25 and own a playoff berth or are close to one, it's hard to imagine a deadline deal. But if it's looking like they'll miss the postseason again, there figures to be a market for Panarin from contending teams that think a high-scoring left wing would be just what they need to make a long playoff run.
Panarin would still have the final say-so, but he might be more willing to move to a team poised to chase the Cup – and perhaps find himself a new home in the process. However, navigating his massive salary-cap hit makes this a very difficult option.
The Winnipeg Jets are the only playoff team from last season projected to have the cap room to fit Panarin's salary, according to Puckpedia and it's hard to see Panarin wanting to go to a rebuilding team.
3. Rangers can l et season play out, then decide on Artemi Panarin
This definitely has the potential to be the riskiest option for Drury and the Rangers.
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Suppose Panarin has another season with 90-100 points – something that would be in line with his Rangers point-per-game average if he plays 80 games. Depending on whether the Rangers make the postseason and how far they go, Drury could be facing a small window of opportunity to re-sign the franchise's best offensive player of the 21st century.
Trying to sign a potential free agent who's done nothing but pile up points for seven straight seasons may not be easy. Another big season by Panarin figures to drive up his contract demands – and with the salary cap set to rise to $104 million in 2026-27 from $95.5 million this coming season, even an almost-35-year-old figures to come away with a sizeable new contract.
The Rangers could find themselves in the same situation the Toronto Maple Leafs did as free agency neared this year, stuck with an elite player like high-scoring forward Mitch Marner , who wasn't going to return and decided that he knew where he wanted to go.
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The Maple Leafs wound up doing a sign-and-trade that sent Marner (and a new eight-year, $96 million contract) to the Vegas Golden Knights for bottom-six forward Nicholas Roy. He's a useful player – but nowhere near Marner's value.
An offshoot of that nightmare would be if Panarin signed with another team without a deal being worked out ahead of time. The Rangers do not want to end up like the Islanders in the summer of 2018, when they got nothing after their best player, center John Tavares , signed with the Maple Leafs.
4. So what's likeliest Rangers scenario with Artemi Panarin?
In late May, colleague Tom Castro made the case that the Rangers should keep Panarin for the upcoming season but not re-sign him for 2026-27. His biggest argument is that Panarin hasn't been able to replicate his regular-season success in the postseason (35 points in 46 playoff games with the Rangers; .76 points per game).
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With a number of top stars also entering the final years of their contracts, Tom raised the valid point that the Rangers might want to keep enough cap room to make a run at McDavid, Eichel, or Kaprizov next summer.
It's also hard to see the Rangers returning to the playoffs without Panarin or a suitable replacement – if Drury could find one. So, it'd appear he's definitely in for next season and other factors will help the Rangers decide on his future.
Panarin has served as the cornerstone of the Rangers rebuild, one that has seen them win the Presidents' Trophy in 2024 and reach Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final in 2022 and 2024. The question they have to decide is whether the relationship is nearing an end.
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