NEW YORK — There are still Artemi Panarin jerseys in the Madison Square Garden team store. Fans at Thursday’s game against the New York Islanders still had No. 10 on their backs. Panarin still had a nameplate over a stall in the dressing room.
He just wasn’t on the ice.
In all likelihood, Panarin has played his final game with the New York Rangers. He was a healthy scratch for roster management each of the past two games against the Islanders, including a 2-1 loss Thursday. The 34-year-old wing’s last game likely came in a 4-3 overtime win against the Boston Bruins on Monday, before fans knew it was time to say goodbye. He will not play again for the Rangers before the Olympic roster freeze.
“Stuff like that is emotional,” captain J.T. Miller said Thursday. “It sucks. He’s a driver of the team. Great guy. But that being said, we have a job to do. It’s a part of the business, and we need to show up and try to win hockey games.”
The seemingly inevitable Panarin deal loomed over Thursday’s game. That will be the team’s reality for however long he’s held out before a trade.
With Chris Drury’s letter to fans announcing a “retool,” the president and general manager essentially declared he’s focused more on the future of the Rangers roster than the present. The club’s results will likely reflect that in the coming weeks. Thursday was the latest example; the Rangers struggled to generate offense without Panarin and injured defenseman Adam Fox, and they weren’t able to bury the chances they got, save for a Mika Zibanejad one-timer on the power play. In net, the Islanders’ Ilya Sorokin outperformed Jonathan Quick, who is playing in place of injured star Igor Shesterkin.
Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said Thursday morning that he didn’t think it was “in anybody’s best interest” to shed light publicly on the team’s thought process leading to Panarin’s removal from the lineup. There’s also no clear sense of how long this situation could last. When the Columbus Blue Jackets traded now-Rangers defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov to the Los Angeles Kings in 2023, he sat for eight games while working toward a trade.
“It wasn’t a great experience, but I can get the business part of that,” said Gavrikov, who signed with the Rangers over the summer. “As an athlete, you’ve just got to be in shape and get ready whenever the chance presents itself.”
Gavrikov, who is friends with Panarin and lived in the forward’s house while getting settled earlier this season, declined to elaborate on his emotions regarding Panarin’s situation. He said only that he’s focusing on the Rangers’ next game.
Guessing Panarin’s next team is foolish. What we do know is that he has the right to strike down any deal with his no-movement clause, and his agent, Paul Theofanous, has permission from the Rangers to negotiate a contract extension with interested teams. Pierre LeBrun and Chris Johnston, The Athletic’s hockey insiders, compiled teams that could have both the interest and cap space to make a run at acquiring him. On a TSN segment, they mentioned the Kings, San Jose Sharks, Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes as potential clubs to watch. According to LeBrun, the Anaheim Ducks had discussions about Panarin, too, but don’t want to commit to an extension, so they appear out of the mix unless something with Panarin’s situation shifts. Other clubs are almost certainly lingering.
Panarin’s preference to ink an extension with a trade could benefit the Rangers. If a team knows he isn’t just a rental, it might be more willing to give up more in terms of draft picks and prospects. It also opens up the field of teams potentially interested. Washington, for example, is toward the bottom of the East standings and likely to miss the playoffs this year. If the Capitals acquire him with assurance he’s part of their core beyond this season, a trade could remain worthwhile, even if it doesn’t change their postseason fate in 2025-26.
Panarin’s no-movement clause could still diminish the return for the Rangers. If he and Theofanous get the contract extension they want with one club and aren’t open to others, New York loses leverage. The possibility of a bidding war goes away.
Other clubs could enter the mix if Panarin’s preferences shift and he considers rental destinations. Perhaps Anaheim would re-emerge as a possibility, or maybe the Dallas Stars or Colorado Avalanche try to further add to already-championship-contending rosters.
Yet, as the saga unfolds, the Rangers will feel his absence — both on the ice and mentally.
“Does it weigh on these guys? Of course,” said Sullivan, who mostly liked how his team competed Thursday despite the loss. “They’re human beings. I think they’re doing a great job just compartmentalizing it. When we walk through the doors, and we’re getting ready to play, we compete, and we play hard for each other. That’s what we’re going to continue to do.”
Carson Soucy opened the scoring for the Islanders late in the second period against his former team. (Dennis Schneidler / Imagn Images)
Other notes
• The Rangers went 0-4-0 against the Islanders this season and were outscored 14-3 in those games. For the first time in the history of the rivalry, the Rangers never had a lead against the Islanders over the course of the season.
• Carson Soucy got traded from the Rangers to the Islanders on Monday, and he scored in his second game with his new club. He fooled Jonathan Quick with a shot late in the second period.
“Soucy got us pretty fired up,” Islanders rookie Matthew Schaefer said, calling his new teammate “a great guy on and off the ice.”
Soucy isn’t much of a goal scorer but must be eager to impress with new clubs. He scored in his first game with the Rangers in March, his third game with the Canucks in 2023 and his third game with the Kraken in 2021. Minnesota, his first team, is the only club with which he needed more than three games to score his first goal. He took until game No. 20 with the Wild.
• Schaefer, the Calder Trophy front-runner, isn’t afraid to fan some rivalry flames.
“When I played my first Islanders-Rangers game, the building (was) full of both fans, and it’s loud,” he said. “We can score here, and it gets loud because we have a lot of fans. They can score there (on Long Island). It can get a little loud. But our fans are way louder than theirs.”