After the Columbus Blue Jackets, New York Islanders, Florida Panthers and Colorado Avalanche all made huge pitches to try and convince Artemi Panarin to join their squads, it ends up being the New York Rangers who will acquire his services moving forward. The Rangers have agreed to terms on a seven-year, $81.5M deal with Panarin.
Panarin, 27, was the consensus No. 1 in our Top 50 UFAs this season and will immediately become the highest-paid winger in the entire NHL. His cap hit is will be more than $1M higher than Patrick Kane’s $10.5M from several years ago and well ahead of the recent market set by Nikita Kucherov and Mark Stone at $9.5M. Part of that is the fact that he actually got to unrestricted free agency, but there is good reason to think he will be able to perform at a high level for quite some time.
In the four years he has played in North America, the originally undrafted Panarin has only gotten better. Setting a career high with 87 points last season in just 79 games, he proved that he could create offense with any type of linemate and established himself as a legitimate superstar in the NHL. That’s exactly what the Rangers were waiting for and have now had quite the summer. They already traded for both Adam Fox and Jacob Trouba to improve their blue line and drafted Kaapo Kakko second overall. Panarin’s contract is extremely expensive but also puts the Rangers in line to compete for the playoffs as soon as next season.
By: Gavin Lee
