NEW YORK — When the New York Rangers’ 2025-26 season started to crater, their fans became more and more willing to express displeasure with Chris Drury, the team president and general manager. Chants of “Fire Drury” broke out at Madison Square Garden in January, and supporters held up anti-Drury signs at games on a recent California road trip.

So, perhaps unsurprisingly, the broad sentiment around the return Drury received in the Artemi Panarin trade Wednesday was negative. In exchange for a franchise great, the Rangers received Liam Greentree — the top prospect in a depleted Kings prospect pool — and a conditional third-round pick. In terms of which side received more value, the deal was a huge win for the Kings. The Athletic’s Shayna Goldman and Corey Pronman gave the Rangers a D and a C, respectively, in their trade grades.

The explanation for why Drury didn’t receive more comes down to leverage. The Rangers had already told Panarin, then a pending unrestricted free agent, that they were not going to offer him a contract extension and wanted to find him a new team via trade. The winger had full say in his future with the no-movement clause he negotiated into the seven-year deal he signed in July 2019.

“(He had) a lot of control over the situation,” Drury said in a 15-minute call with reporters Wednesday after the trade. “He earned it and deserved it.”

The Rangers held Panarin out of the lineup starting Jan. 28 for “roster management” reasons, and the team gave Panarin and his agent, Paul Theofanous, permission to talk to teams and negotiate an extension. Panarin wanted an extension as part of the trade, eliminating potential rental destinations such as Colorado, Dallas and Anaheim, and his camp spoke to suitors about what they were willing to offer in a new contract. After those discussions, Panarin told the Rangers late Wednesday morning that the only place he was willing to sign was with the Kings, according to Drury. (The Kings agreed to a two-year, $11 million average annual value deal with Panarin.)

As the Rangers saw with the way everything unfolded Wednesday, Panarin — and the Kings, once they emerged as his pick — held almost all the cards. The Rangers’ one point of leverage was time. Drury could have opted not to deal Panarin before Wednesday’s 3 p.m. ET Olympic roster freeze and told Los Angeles he needed more in terms of either picks or prospects to execute the deal. The Rangers would’ve still had until the March 6 trade deadline to complete the swap.

There’s no guarantee waiting would have led to a better return. Kings GM Ken Holland could have waited out Drury, knowing the Rangers wouldn’t want to lose Panarin for nothing. With the Kings in a fight to make the playoffs, though, perhaps he would’ve thrown in another trade chip to get the deal done.

Drury is not the first general manager to trade away a franchise cornerstone with little to no leverage. In 2022, then-Philadelphia captain Claude Giroux, who had a no-movement clause, chose Florida as his preferred destination. Philadelphia managed to get a 2024 first-round pick, 2023 third-round pick and Owen Tippett in the deal, which also included two minor leaguers going to Florida. At the 2025 trade deadline, the Panthers acquired an injured Brad Marchand for a 2027 second-round pick that became a first when Florida won two rounds. Marchand didn’t have a no-movement clause, but the Bruins’ brass wanted to send him to a preferred destination.

None of these situations is the same; Panarin is producing at a higher rate this season than Marchand and Giroux were when they got traded, and he is also the only one to sign an extension in conjunction with the trade. But compared to those two deals, the Rangers got less than Philadelphia and might end up with more than Boston.

Greentree, the No. 26 pick in 2024, is a legitimate prospect. Corey Pronman, one of The Athletic’s prospect experts, wrote in his trade analysis that the 6-foot-3 winger has good vision and finishing abilities. The 20-year-old has 45 points in 34 games this season as the captain of the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires.

“He has legit offensive traits for the next level, but his skating and effort level are average and there are questions about how his game will translate,” Pronman wrote. “He projects as a middle-six winger with the ability to play on the power play, but his even-strength impact may be just OK.”

“I think he brings a lot to the table,” Drury said. “He’s got some size to him, he’s got a really good hockey IQ and a lot of skill. … We valued him and a prospect like him higher than a ’26 or ’27 first-round pick.”

The conditions on the third-round pick say that it becomes a second-round selection if the Kings win a playoff round, and the Rangers will add a 2028 fourth-round pick if Los Angeles makes the Western Conference final.

Regardless of whether Drury could’ve gotten more for Panarin by waiting, the return on the winger was likely always going to be limited if Panarin had only one team to which he would accept a trade, as ended up being the case. The same won’t be true for other potential Rangers moves. Vincent Trocheck could fetch a sizable return in a center-hungry trade market, in part because Drury has leverage: Trocheck is under contract through 2028-29. The Rangers can be patient and complete a deal only if a team blows them away with an offer. The same can be said for Braden Schneider, a big right-shot defenseman whom teams could crave. He’s a restricted free agent after this season, so he’s under team control. Neither player has a no-movement clause.

So, while Panarin might have been the most prominent name Drury trades this year, moving him will not end up as one of the general manager’s biggest deadline tests. Those are still to come.