A recent report from NHL Analyst Frank Seravalli suggests that the New York Rangers will not re-sign forward Artemi Panarin soon. Instead, they will wait and see how the situation plays out with the Rangers' best forward.
Last season with the New York Rangers, Artemi Panarin was one of the team's best forwards, albeit not as productive as 2023-24 where he scored 120-points.
He'd score 32-57-89 last season, and would see a significant decline in production compared to the team's President's Trophy season. Panarin signed a 7-year, $11.642 million contract after he arrived in New York from Columbus.
The Russian forward has been a key player in the lineup and has been a part of every playoff run since 2019.
However, his 2024-25 season has given Chris Drury pause, as NHL analyst Frank Seravalli reporting that the team isn't in a rush to re-sign him.
If things turn out to go wrong, Drury will have to go back to the drawing board, which could include a big decision.
Artemi Panarin's Future in New York is Concerning
General Manager Chris Drury has shown he has no trouble trading players who were considered core members of the lineup this past season. Kaapo Kakko, Filip Chyti, and Jacob Trouba were just some names traded recently.
And if Panarin is unable to turn his game around and help the team get back into the playoffs, could we see a shift in priorities in March?
Trading the pending unrestricted free agent (in July) could get ahead of the chaos of another detrimental year in the NHL and free up cap space.
Despite his no-movement clause, they could still find a way to move him, as we've seen Drury work around such clauses before (Goodrow), despite the infamy surrounding the move. Though we doubt he'd risk that kind of bad publicity again.
Back in May the Bleacher Report suggested that there could be six suitors for Panarin, we imagine they would be in the mix for him, should the team fail to re-sign him.
In our opinion, the Rangers should have a gameplan for a trade before April if things don't go well with Panarin this season.
If not, we'll know Drury has bad long-term planning abilities for the Rangers success.
