Things are not good with the New York Rangers early, and that could spell changes. There is a different feel than last season, but not scoring through the first three home games is troubling. In the last year of Artemi Panarin’s deal, without a new contract in place beyond that, there could be a drastic decision coming in regards to the star.
Frank Seravalli had thoughts on the Panarin situation with the Rangers, saying, “I think they’re comfortable waiting to see how this season goes, if they either fall short of making the playoffs or if they’re a team that is not very competitive. I think they’re going to let him walk.”
While letting Panarin go to free agency would free up plenty of cap space that the Rangers would have to turn around and utilize, letting him walk means not getting any assets for a player of that caliber, which isn’t ideal.
Letting Panarin Walk Would Be Bold
After bringing in J.T. Miller last season and Vladislav Gavrikov in during the offseason, the New York Rangers are trying to compete, so it would be an interesting and bold decision to let their best free agent signing in history and arguably their best player, become a free agent with nothing in return.
Panarin doesn’t owe the Rangers anything. He chose New York as a free agent in 2019 and since, has put up 186 goals and 552 points in 435 regular season games as well as four playoff runs where he has produced 12 goals and 35 points in 46 games. The Rangers have made the conference finals twice, but no further in the past six years.
What makes Panarin the best free agent signing in Rangers history is also why it is a bold move to let him walk if that is how things play out. He is about to turn 34 years old, but was a Hart Trophy finalist while also finishing top-5 in voting two seasons ago when he put up 49 goals and 120 points. The veteran has 90+ points on three other occasions and the only time he hasn’t hit at least 20 goals and 89 points was the shortened COVID season.
Rangers Would Be Freed Up to Improve Overall Without Panarin
Seeing the contracts given to Kyle Connor, Mitch Marner, Mikko Rantanen, Jack Eichel, and especially Kirill Kaprizov, there’s no indication that Panarin is going to want to take a team-friendly deal to stay with the New York Rangers given his contribution to the team these past six season.
He has a cap hit of $11.64 million AAV, and with the cap going up to at least $104 million, that gives the Rangers room to have better players making more in the bottom-6. New York is currently paying their six bottom-6 players a combined $6.1 million. Given the top-6 has combined for 10 points and the bottom-6 has combined for 9, it doesn’t look bad at the moment for the depth forwards, but really bad for the top players expected to drive offense.
The Rangers won’t have too many options to add a player similar in skill to Panarin if he leaves, but they will have plenty of room to add a solid forward for the top-6 and also address the rest of the forward group, whether they keep some open cap space by allowing their prospects to push into the lineup, or go out and bring players in. The Rangers are a prime destination for free agents, but it would be a major change to the team.
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