{"id":164317,"date":"2026-02-04T23:53:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T23:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/164317\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T23:53:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T23:53:06","slug":"artemi-panarin-trade-makes-san-jose-sharks-playoff-path-that-much-harder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/164317\/","title":{"rendered":"Artemi Panarin trade makes San Jose Sharks’ playoff path that much harder"},"content":{"rendered":"

DENVER \u2013 The San Jose Sharks\u2019 path toward their first postseason appearance i<\/a>n seven years might have just become a bit more challenging.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Kings, one of the Sharks\u2019 chief competitors for a precious Western Conference playoff spot, made a significant splash<\/a> on Wednesday, acquiring high-scoring winger Artemi Panarin from the New York Rangers for prospect forward Liam Greentree<\/a> and a conditional third-round draft choice.<\/p>\n

Soon after the trade was completed \u2014 mere minutes before the NHL\u2019s roster freeze at noon (PST) on Wednesday \u2014 the Kings signed the 34-year-old Panarin to a two-year, $22 million<\/a> contract extension. Panarin\u2019s contract had a full no-movement clause, allowing him to dictate where he wanted to play.<\/p>\n

This likely doesn\u2019t change anything for the Sharks, who already dipped into the trade market last month by acquiring forward Kiefer Sherwood from the Vancouver Canucks for two second-round draft picks and minor league defenseman Cole Clayton. Sherwood made his Sharks debut<\/a> on Wednesday night against the Colorado Avalanche.<\/p>\n

But with Panarin now in L.A., an already tight playoff race in the West just became a bit more intriguing.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake: While the Kings still have some roster issues to sort out, namely at the center position, they\u2019re a better team now<\/a> \u2013 and seemingly a harder team for the Sharks to pass in the standings \u2014 with Panarin than they were at the start of the week.<\/p>\n

With Panarin, the Kings get a winger they can immediately thrust onto their top line. He had led the Rangers in scoring each of the last seven seasons,<\/a> including this year with 57 points in 52 games with New York, with his last game coming on Jan. 26.<\/p>\n

The Kings, coming into Wednesday, ranked 28th in the NHL with an average of 2.57 goals per game.<\/p>\n

The Sharks, with 58 points, entered Wednesday three points back of the Seattle Kraken for the Western Conference\u2019s second and final wild card spot. The Kings were one point behind the Kraken.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a wide-open race for the Pacific Division lead, with the Vegas Golden Knights and Edmonton Oilers each with 64 points before Wednesday, and the Anaheim Ducks one point back. The top three teams in each division automatically qualify for the playoffs.<\/p>\n

As of Wednesday, the Sharks\u2019 remaining strength of schedule, per Tankathon.com,<\/a> was the third-easiest in the NHL. Sounds good if you\u2019re a Sharks fan, until you see that the Ducks and Kings have easier remaining schedules, based on their opponents\u2019 combined points percentage.<\/p>\n

Still, the Sharks, who had lost three straight games coming into Wednesday, needed to start worrying about their process instead of what\u2019s going on around them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in a unique position right now because of how well we\u2019ve played,\u201d Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said Tuesday. \u201cNow that we\u2019re here, we\u2019re gripping it. We want to go out and play this perfect game and just win the game. Your process helps you win the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to get back to just playing a little bit fast, a little bit loose, a little bit more connected. These guys have been playing since they were three or four years old. Let\u2019s have some fun. Let\u2019s play and just loosen up a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rangers announced last month that they would not re-sign Panarin, who was set to become an unrestricted free agent, and began scratching him from games<\/a> to help prevent a serious injury.<\/p>\n

The Sharks were one of the many teams that reached out to the Rangers about Panarin, who was reportedly open<\/a> to coming to San Jose and signing an extension with the team. The Sharks probably could have offered a similar contract extension to Panarin and perhaps a more lucrative trade package.<\/p>\n

Subsequent reports on Wednesday, though, indicated that the Kings were the only team Panarin was interested in joining.<\/a><\/p>\n

Having a young, exciting group of players to build around should help make San Jose a more attractive place to play for pending UFAs. But when? That wasn\u2019t the case with Panarin, and one wonders if other high-profile players are like-minded in that respect.<\/p>\n

Panarin coming to the Sharks would have been fun to watch. Now the focus shifts to the stretch run, and what Mike Grier and the Sharks<\/a> do before the NHL trade deadline on March 6, if anything, considering their competition just got better.<\/p>\n

INJURY UPDATES<\/p>\n

Warsofsky said Ryan Reaves\u2019s upper-body injury is more day-to-day than week-to-week. Reaves was placed on injured reserve on Tuesday, and the Sharks\u2019 first game after the Olympic break is on Feb. 26 at home against the Calgary Flames. \u2026 Forward Ty Dellandrea is making progress from a lower body injury he sustained on Jan. 6. but Warsofsky said it\u2019s too soon to say whether he\u2019ll be ready to play by the end of the month.<\/p>\n

DICKINSON SITS<\/p>\n

Defenseman Sam Dickinson was a healthy scratch for Wednesday\u2019s game. He had been in 19 straight games since mid-December, averaging 17:12 in ice time while collecting six assists. Forwards Jeff Skinner and Pavol Regenda were also scratched on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER \u2013 The San Jose Sharks\u2019 path toward their first postseason appearance in seven years might have just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[184,7,401,402,181,404,88,90,89,98,198,403,200,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-164317","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-bay-area","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-inside-sports","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-san-jose","15":"tag-san-jose-headlines","16":"tag-san-jose-news","17":"tag-san-jose-sharks","18":"tag-santa-clara-county","19":"tag-sharks-alert","20":"tag-south-bay","21":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}