Artemi Panarin Heads From Broadway To Hollywood

Eliot J. Schechter. Getty Images.

It was July 1, 2019. A little over a year after the Rangers sent out their original version of "The Letter", signifying a reset of the squad that fell short of a Cup through 7 consecutive playoff appearances. The biggest fish on the market, Artemi Panarin, shunned more money from the Islanders to dance on Broadway and boy did he put on a show for 6+ seasons. The Breadman put asses in seats and helped this organization return to relevancy. Laced 'em up and immediately collected 95 points in 69 games to garner himself recognition as a '19-'20 Hart finalist & 24 first-place votes. Proceeded to lead the Rangers in scoring every single season, highlighted by his '23-'24 campaign that saw him hit 120…43 points more than his next-highest scoring teammate and the second-most in franchise history. 607 points in 482 games is incredible production. Easily the best points-per-game average in Rangers history & top ten in all-time scoring. Outside of anyone who has their number in the rafters, it's not hard to argue Panarin as the best Blueshirt over the last 50 years.

In fairness, playoffs weren't as kind to The Breadman. He was scapegoated fairly heavily for the teams' postseason failures as he was only able to muster 12 goals over 46 contests. Still, he had his share of all-time moments including a couple OT game-winners. None bigger than his Round 1 Game 7 walkoff vs the Pens to complete climbing out of a 3-1 series hole, en route to their first of two ECF appearances in three years:

Buit it all came to an end after his last game - an overtime win in front of the home fans on January 26th - when he was sidelined as injury protection before the inevitable trade. That trade is now a reality, from all sources…Adam Schefter??

For the Kings it's exactly what they need. Scoring. PP help. A bottom-five unit all-around offensively. Panarin will clearly help them in spades as they jockey for position in a wide-open Pacific division. Once they shed Philip Danault's salary earlier this season and the writing was on the wall in NY, LA always made sense to me as a landing spot.

The return was never going to be earth-shattering. We've seen countless deals like this in the NHL where a superstar wields his no-move clause and essentially strips his team of all trade leverage. Stars want to go to contenders. Contenders usually aren't stocked with top picks and prospects to spare. Contenders aren't going to strip from their current roster. Stars pick their destination and the trading team does the best they can. In the Rangers case, they managed to get Liam Greentree - the top prospect in the Kings system, which is the most you can ask for - along with a conditional 3rd. A few conditions are attached, but none of them result to the pick being any better than a 2nd rounder so the pick isn't all that exciting.

So Greentree is the consolation prize for failing to capitalize on 6.5 seasons of Artemi Panarin. He's a giant wing - 6'3 215 or so - who just turned 20. 26th overall pick in 2024, currently carving up the OHL so don't expect him to see him in a Rangers sweater any time soon. The kid has a promising offensive toolbox, but the one knock on him is his skating (which is why he fell outside the top 20) and that's been a common theme for a lot of Blueshirts draft picks that haven't lived up to their potential. Really gotta hope this is one that finally works out - but once Panarin said "LA or bust", Greentree was by far the best non-NHL piece they could extract.

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With the Olympic trade freeze in full effect now, Rangers fans can check out for a bit from what's been an absolute nightmare of as season. But it's far from over in terms of turnover if Drury and brass is truly all-in on retooling. There will be more big dominos to fall.

Vincent Trocheck, you're on the clock.