The Artemi Panarin saga is over for the New York Rangers. For Rangers fans, the ire is just beginning.
News broke on Wednesday afternoon, just after the clock ticked away on the NHL roster freeze, that the Rangers had traded Panarin to the LA Kings.
All right, that wasn’t much of a shock. The Kings had been one of the teams in the mix for Panarin. But what has absolutely sent shockwaves throughout the NHL is the return the Rangers got for the Russian superstar.
Insider Elliotte Friedman broke the news, reporting that the Kings sent 2024 first-round pick Liam Greentree and a conditional third-round pick to the Rangers in exchange for Panarin.
That’s it.
No multiple firsts. No major players. Not even a current NHL roster player. Nada. Zip. Zilch.
While the fingers will point squarely at Rangers GM Chris Drury, the fact is that he was handcuffed in this negotiation. Panarin held all the leverage in this situation. Panarin’s camp likely steered the deal towards the Kings, leaving the Blueshirts with nothing to work with.
As Mollie Walker of the NY Post reported, Panarin wanted the Kings. That pretty much zapped all the leverage Drury could have had in the negotiation.
At the time of this writing, there is no indication of what the contract extension could be for Panarin. The likelihood is that Panarin will get what he wants from the Kings.
It’s worth pointing out that the Kings might not have a firm extension in place at the time of the trade with the Rangers. What getting the deal done today does is buy LA time to finalize the details on the extension.
Rangers Stuck with the Check at the End of the Party
Even though Chris Drury gets a bit of a pass on this epic faceplant, the fact is that he could have driven a harder bargain. Drury could have stuck to his guns and demanded a better return.
However, it seems that Drury was willing to take whatever he could get. It didn’t seem like he was willing to put the Rangers through three more weeks of chatter and speculation amid the ongoing speculation.
Liam Greentree is a fine prospect and could make a decent impact for the Rangers at some point. Meanwhile, the conditional third-round pick could turn into multiple picks if the conditions come to fruition.
Kings Surprise NHL as Panthers Had Been Pegged as Frontrunners
The Kings ended up surprising the NHL by ultimately landing the former Rangers star. Leading up to Wednesday, the talk was that the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning could be the ones to land Panarin.
However, news of the Rangers-Kings deal will leave pundits scrambling to find out what went wrong for the two Florida-based teams. The answer seems clear. Panarin wanted to go to Tinseltown, and that’s that.
In the coming days, the trade will undergo surgical dissection. It will also become clear why Panarin chose Los Angeles ahead of other clubs. In the meantime, the fallout of this trade could reshape the NHL trade deadline following the Olympics.
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