TARRYTOWN, N.Y. — With the NHL’s March 6 trade deadline just over five weeks away, a cloud of uncertainty hangs over many of the players rumored to be available.

Artemi Panarin, the New York Rangers star forward and prize of this year’s market, is at the center of the storm.

The truth is, it’s still somewhat of a guessing game regarding the 34-year-old’s future. We know the Rangers’ position: They’re not re-signing him and would very much like to trade him. But with the power of a full no-movement clause, Panarin’s stance is the one that matters most.

He’s declined to comment on what comes next, while his agent, Paul Theofanous, has not returned calls and messages from The Athletic. That’s left the situation ripe for speculation — isn’t that part of the fun this time of year? — So here’s my best dot-connecting based on conversations over the last couple of weeks with multiple league sources, who spoke under the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.

If all things were equal, I sense that Panarin would prefer to stay on the East Coast. His family is comfortable here, his father-in-law works as a scouting consultant for the Philadelphia Flyers, and it’s a much easier trip to Russia from this time zone. Of course, it may not be that simple.

Three different people I spoke to believe the two-time champion Florida Panthers would be Panarin’s No. 1 choice for multiple reasons, including his tight friendship with goalie Sergei Bobrovsky. The Panthers have rallied of late to pull within four points of a wild-card spot entering play Tuesday, but they’ve also depleted their tradable assets with go-for-it moves in recent years. It’s also hard to figure out how they’d fit Panarin under the salary cap, especially if captain Aleksander Barkov — who’s recently been spotted skating as he recovers from September ACL surgery — attempts to come back for the playoffs.

The Washington Capitals stand out as a logical alternative. They have ample cap space and a deeper asset pool, including a 2026 first-round pick, which Florida and other contenders can’t match. Most notably, Washington general manager Chris Patrick has publicly stated that their “biggest need” is a “higher-end, skilled winger.”

The problem is, the Caps are even further back in the playoff race than the Panthers. Is this the right time to push their chips into the middle of the table? It’s also unclear how Panarin would feel about joining forces with fellow Russian star Alex Ovechkin.

Maybe Washington would decide it’s worth it if they can work out a contract extension with the pending UFA, which a couple of league sources believe to be Panarin’s preference wherever he ends up. The Rangers are allowing Panarin’s camp to negotiate with inquiring clubs in advance of any trade, The Athletic has learned, but it’s less clear if anything is close on that front.

If a new deal proves too complicated to hammer out in this relatively short timeframe and Panarin is traded as a pure rental, a couple of teams I’m watching are the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars. Those represent perhaps his best chances to chase a Cup before hitting free agency on July 1. The Avs, in particular, are a team that we’ve already reported has had internal discussions about making the trade after finishing as one of the runners-up while pursuing Panarin as a UFA in 2019. I’m just not sure if the top team in the league is willing to part with the limited picks and prospects they have for what amounts to a luxury addition.

Lastly, while I’m not fully buying the Southern California chatter, if Panarin does warm up to the idea of heading west, the Anaheim Ducks feel like a more realistic partner than the Los Angeles Kings. The Ducks are in a better position in the Western Conference standings, have a much deeper prospect pipeline to pull from, and there are multiple connections with people in that organization. Panarin played for coach Joel Quenneville while they were both in Chicago and seemed to have good relationships with Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba as teammates in New York, but he was especially close with Anaheim center Ryan Strome. The Ducks don’t strike me as a team that needs more skill, which adds to my skepticism, but it wouldn’t shock me if they were involved, for all those reasons.

Watch Minnesota and Carolina for Trocheck

While everyone is expecting that Panarin will be traded somewhere, there’s less certainty when it comes to Vincent Trocheck. He’s under contract for three more years at a manageable $5.625 million average annual value, so the Rangers don’t have to make a move now. But as one league source put it, it seems to be “heading in that direction.”

The team I have my eye on is the Minnesota Wild. Colleagues Michael Russo and Joe Smith wrote earlier this month that Wild GM Bill Guerin and his staff have “great admiration” for the 32-year-old center, whom Guerin notably selected as a member of Team USA for the upcoming Olympics, then furthered that reporting Monday by noting that Minnesota isn’t on Trocheck’s 12-team no-trade list. They added that “nothing was imminent over the weekend,” but this is a situation worth monitoring.

I don’t think the Rangers could pry away budding winger Danila Yurov, but I wonder about a package that looks something like 2023 first-round center Charlie Stramel, a young defenseman (maybe David Jiříček or Carson Lambos) and a future first-round pick. (Minnesota already sent its 2026 first-rounder to Vancouver as part of the Quinn Hughes trade.)

Another team I’ve been told to watch is the Carolina Hurricanes, who are among several clubs looking for help down the middle and have a history with Trocheck after he played there for parts of three seasons. The Detroit Red Wings seem like a logical fit, as well, but that’s just my own informed opinion.

Big asking price set for Schneider

As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, the Rangers seem willing to listen on just about anyone, which includes young defenseman Braden Schneider. My read on that situation is that it’s going to take a fairly significant haul.

New York views the 24-year-old as one of its most valuable trade chips and is therefore setting a high asking price. If there’s a team out there that’s willing to meet it, the belief is that team president Chris Drury will cash in. Otherwise, he’s expected to hold the pending RFA, whom the Rangers could still feasibly consider as part of their future plans, and circle back if a tempting offer comes along over the summer (or any other point down the line).

Schneider has been thrust into top-pair duties this season due to multiple injuries to No. 1 defenseman Adam Fox, with this latest stint exposing concerns about his ability to handle a shutdown role. In nine games since Fox went down with his most recent lower-body injury, the Rangers have been outscored 15-7 with Schneider on the ice at five-on-five, with a 40.28 percent expected goals-for rate that ranks last among the team’s defensemen in that span, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Despite those troubling numbers, I’ve been cautioned not to underestimate the market for big, physical, right-handed defensemen with perceived upside.

Soucy staying local

The Rangers believe they took the best available offer when they sent defenseman Carson Soucy to the New York Islanders on Monday in exchange for a 2026 third-round pick and it was undoubtedly a desirable destination for the player. Soucy and his wife, Shyla, just welcomed their third child earlier this month and won’t have to worry about moving with a newborn.

It may have been purely coincidental, but making a move that also benefits a player’s family after a season in which multiple players felt aggrieved on the way out certainly doesn’t hurt from an optics perspective.

Retool targets

While Peter Baugh and I were working on our trade targets story, which was published earlier this week, I kept coming back to one overwhelming thought: If the Rangers are actually going to retool, as opposed to a longer-term rebuild, they’re going to need to land at least one or two players from our “Young forwards still establishing themselves” category.

Like many of you, I remain skeptical about their ability to pull that off, given many of the concerns we’ve previously laid out. But acquiring play-driving forwards in their early 20s is probably the team’s only chance.

File that in the easier-said-than-done category.