PHILADELPHIA — Everything Artemi Panarin did on the ice Saturday appeared carefree.
The 34-year-old winger collected three points, including two goals, to lead the New York Rangers to a 6-3 win over the Philadelphia Flyers. He looked as dangerous as ever in career game No. 800, of which 478 have come in Ranger Blue. He’s collected 604 points (204 goals and 400 assists) in that span, leading the team in scoring each of his seven seasons with New York.
But once the adrenaline settled and Panarin stood in the visiting locker room at Xfinity Mobile Arena, he emanated a feeling of uneasiness. It was time to face the inevitable questions that stemmed from a public letter issued by team president Chris Drury the day prior, which announced his plans to “retool” a roster that’s crumbled on his watch and thrust Panarin into an unwanted spotlight. He was warned shortly before the message was released to fans, with Drury letting arguably the greatest free-agent signing in franchise history know that his days with the Rangers are numbered.
“It’s hard to say how I feel,” said a somber Panarin. “I’m still confused, but the GM decided to go in a different direction. I’m OK with that. I’m a Ranger player right now, so I’ll play every game 100 percent.”
The reality has yet to fully sink in — not just for Panarin, but all members of the organization who are reeling from the news.
Regarding how the conversation went with Drury and which teams he may be willing to waive his no-movement clause for, Panarin wasn’t ready to go there, responding, “I actually said everything I want to say about this situation. Let’s talk about hockey.”
His reluctance could be interpreted as concern that speaking his mind might cause further friction, but he’ll have final say on whatever comes next.
“I’m trying to be smart for once in my life,” he quipped.
While speculation runs rampant, Panarin will continue to find safe space every time he hops over the boards.
He wasn’t the only one.
“Everyone played loose,” Panarin said.
The Rangers (21-22-6) turned in one of their best games of this shattered season, at least for the first two periods, to snap a five-game losing streak that had dropped them to the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings and spurred Drury’s damage-control efforts.
Mika Zibanejad notched his second hat trick of the month, Alexis Lafrenière, Vincent Trocheck and captain J.T. Miller collected two points apiece, and rookie Brennan Othmann netted his long-awaited first NHL goal. That helped New York build a commanding 6-1 lead before holding on for dear life while the Flyers pushed in the third.
“All the B.S. is out in front of us now,” Miller said. “You can just play. You can just kind of go out and try to enjoy the game again. It’s been rough. We’ve been challenged here lately, and it’s a really hard game. We use the word humbling all the time. It’s really hard to do all the right things (when) nothing is either going your way or you’re not playing as well as you’re supposed to. It’s difficult, but we were just trying to get two points and win a hockey game. And we had some guys step up big.”
Saturday gave a battered group something to feel good about, but it doesn’t take them out of the crosshairs.
Players and coach Mike Sullivan were trotted out to deal with the aftermath of the franchise’s second letter in less than eight years, while Drury declined a request from The Athletic for comment. A team source said he plans to address the media at some point after the forthcoming trades begin.
Many are still processing what this means for their individual futures — “You have all kinds of feelings towards something like that coming out,” said Zibanejad, the only remaining player that was here for the 2018 letter and saw it all the way through to The Letter 2.0 — but they also understood that their poor play would have repercussions.
“It’s probably a fairly common-sensical statement to suggest that when you don’t meet expectations, or you don’t have success, that change is inevitable in pro sports,” Sullivan said. “I think our team is well aware of that, and that’s, to a certain extent, what we all sign up for. I don’t know that an acknowledgement of this is something that the players haven’t already thought about or considered as we go through this process. We’re all human beings. We all understand the business, and we all understand the game. And so we’re going to do our very best to control what we can. We’re going to bring a good attitude. We’re going to try to bring exceptional effort every night. We’re going to try to play a collective effort game, and we’ll see where that takes us.”
Here are eight more thoughts from a franchise-altering 24 hours (or so), including what I’m hearing in some of my early conversations about the next steps:
1. It’s still super early in the process, with a ton of stuff being floated around the league and in all corners of the internet. It’s going to take time to get a better feel for who’s most likely to go other than Panarin and pending UFA defenseman Carson Soucy, but my initial read is that the Rangers are going to listen on just about everyone before deciding how to proceed. That includes Trocheck, who’s widely considered their best trade chip without a no-movement clause. Drury doesn’t have to rush, considering the 32-year-old has three years remaining on a contract carrying a $5.625 million AAV, but teams are calling and he can use this time to gauge the market.
The question is whether the Rangers can get more now, when multiple contending teams are looking for center help, or closer to the NHL Draft in June. They’ll have more clarity on where teams are picking if they wait, which can help them pinpoint certain ranges in the draft, but there’s a desperation with which GMs tend to operate when the playoffs are in sight.
In theory, Drury can set a high price, and if no one meets it, circle back over the summer.
2. Other players who are generating early chatter are Lafrenière and defenseman Braden Schneider. The pair of 2020 first-rounders don’t carry the same league-wide appeal they once did — particularly Lafrenière — but no one I’ve spoken to so far would be surprised if the Rangers entertain ideas involving other young players in need of scenery changes.
Schneider is an interesting one because he’s never taken off as a shutdown player and his on-ice metrics are underwhelming, but there are several teams looking for big, physical, right-shot D. It might be the most valuable position on the market outside of center, making the 24-year-old one of New York’s few assets who may be able to yield a significant return.
The Rangers still like the player and view him as a culture-setter, but with Adam Fox and Will Borgen already locked up to long-term deals on the right side and big holes at other positions, they’re in no position to hang up the phone.
3. One player who almost surely isn’t going anywhere (at least not before the deadline) is Zibanejad. The 32-year-old center is one of five players with NMCs who were asked by Drury how they feel about staying through the retool, with a league source indicating that he affirmed his commitment to the Rangers. That could always be subject to change, but in the meantime, he’s making franchise history.
Zibanejad’s power-play goal at the 5:38 mark of the second period moved him into first place on New York’s all-time list for PPG with 117. He passed Camille Henry and old friend Chris Kreider, then completed the hat trick less than three minutes later on a give-and-go play with Miller. That upped Zibanejad’s recent point streak to eight games, during which he’s churned out 17 total points (nine goals and eight assists) while boosting his season total to 21 goals. That’s one more than he had last season in 34 fewer games.
“I’m happy for Meek,” Sullivan said. “I think he’s had a really good year for us. He’s played extremely well, consistently on both sides of the puck. He’s a real good 200-foot player. … We’ve challenged him to use his size and his physicality, both offensively and defensively, and I think he’s really embraced that challenge.”
4. It was hard not to feel good for Othmann, who finally scored his first goal in his 34th career game. It came 8:25 into the first period off a three-on-one rush, with Will Cuylle making the feed and then retrieving the puck. Othmann pumped his arms and let out a roar that had probably been stirring inside him for a year or two.
Earlier this week, I spoke to the 23-year-old about what a difficult season it’s been. He was clearly pressing for a while, but he seems to be doing a much better job of blocking out those negative thoughts recently.
That doesn’t mean the goal drought wasn’t on his mind, though.
“Every day since I got my first call (to the NHL),” Othmann said when asked how often he thought about it. “You’re wondering if you’re ever going to get that one, and you’re wondering if you’re ever going to get an opportunity to play in the NHL. You don’t want to take these days for granted. You don’t want to take playing for granted. And obviously, I’m very fortunate to be here and very fortunate to see that one go in today.”
5. Othmann was asked if anyone helped him navigate those doubts. He mentioned multiple teammates but pointed to one veteran, in particular.
“Mika came up to me in the Seattle game (on Monday) and said not to hang your head and don’t worry about. ‘It’s gonna come,’ and a few games later, it came,” he recalled. “He was the first one in there after the game, and gave me a hug and said, ‘Congrats.’ He’s a really good leader, and I’m thankful that we have a guy like that on this team.”
6. This marked coaching win No. 500 for Sullivan, who must be dealing with his own disappointment about the way this season has gone. He came to New York after 10 seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins with every intention of winning right away, but he’s being forced to recalibrate. I asked him how he feels about enduring the coming selloff.
“I understand the process,” he said. “What I’ll tell you is that I am all in on trying to help this organization move forward. Chris and I have talked throughout this whole process. We have a very transparent relationship and I’m going to do everything in my power to try to help this team move forward. And I’m going to control what I can and try to be the very best coach that I can be for this organization.”
7. There has to be some thought about protecting their most valuable trade assets from injury — or at least there should be — but that doesn’t seem to be on Sullivan’s mind, at least not yet.
“These guys are competitive guys,” he said. “We’re going to try to win every game in front of us. That’s just the way it’s going to be.”
His actions backed that up, with Panarin logging a total of 20:56 time on ice despite the Rangers holding a comfortable lead for most of the afternoon.
8. I’ll give the final word to Miller, who surely doesn’t want to go through an extended period of losing but seemed somewhat relieved after what had clearly been a trying few months.
“The emotions have been going on for longer than the last two days,” he said. “It’s unfortunately part of the game. It’s disappointing, for sure. I don’t think four or five months ago this is where we thought we’d be, but we’ve got a job to do, and we need to start moving forward towards the next chapter. I was just really proud of the way we played today.”