The New York Rangers are having a subpar year, and their best skater, Artemi Panarin, will be a UFA this summer. Rangers GM Chris Drury must either trade Panarin or risk losing him for nothing this summer.
Sitting in dead last in the Eastern Conference standings, it's safe to say that the New York Rangers have had a terrible season.
But as hard as it may seem to believe, things can get even worse.
This summer, Artemi Panarin will be a UFA — and there's a chance he could walk away from the organization for nothing in return.
Losing Panarin to free agency would be an utter disappointment for a team that is en route to missing the playoffs for the second year in a row. While the 34-year-old Panarin is having a down year by his standards, he still has 16 goals and 50 points in 46 games.
Although the Rangers could still make a second-half surge and secure a Stanley Cup playoff spot — they are only seven points out of a wild-card spot — the better way forward is to try to trade Panarin now and reset for next season and beyond.
That being said, there is a case to be made for re-signing Panarin, who has an $11.6-million cap hit. After all, the Rangers don't have another playmaker on Panarin's level. Trading him would also be an admission that this season is a full-on disaster for a Blueshirts team that only two years ago won the Presidents' Trophy and reached the conference final.
However, the bigger picture — and the long term — has to be the priority for Rangers GM Chris Drury.
That means biting the bullet and trading Panarin, while focusing on the 2026-27 campaign. Because, make no mistake, if Panarin hasn't signed a contract extension by now, it's extremely unlikely he's going to do so this summer. And Drury can't risk losing him for nothing.
If the Rangers don't want to meet Panarin's financial demands, you have to believe there's a team out there that will. And if Drury has drawn a line in the sand and he's made it clear to Panarin that the team isn't going to pay him what he's looking for, then Drury has to follow through and move Panarin to the highest bidder.
Panarin has a full no-move clause in his contract, so Drury will have to work with Panarin to find him a new home. But right now, pretty much anywhere looks better than New York. Given that Drury already shipped out veterans Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba, he should have no qualms about dealing another superstar.
The Rangers' struggles this season underscore the fact the competitive window for this particular group of players is basically shut. First-year Rangers coach Mike Sullivan hasn't been able to coax above-average performances out of his players, and that's an indictment of the core, of which Panarin is a central component. Playing out the string this year with Panarin in tow feels like protecting the status quo simply for the sake of it. And that means charting a new course without Panarin.
It would be easy for Drury to stick with the familiar and keep his core together. But for this writer, at least, the pros outweigh the cons when it comes to trading Panarin. The Rangers need good, young players, and if they trade him and then struggle through the second half of the season, the bonus is that they might land a top draft pick this summer.
Ultimately, this Rangers team is not deep enough, nor talented enough, to contend for a playoff spot. That's not Panarin's fault, but if Drury allows him to leave for nothing, it will be a massive blemish on Drury's record.
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