The Olympic break has begun, however one final massive transfer happened within the NHL earlier than the commerce freeze for the video games. On Wednesday the New York Rangers traded star ahead Artemi Panarin to the Los Angeles Kings in a transfer designed to solidify the Kings’ playoff push within the again finish of the season. Panarin subsequently signed a two-year, $22M contract extension ($11M AAV), which is able to maintain the wing till the top of the 2026-27 season.
In alternate the Rangers acquired ahead prospect Liam Greentree, and a conditional third spherical decide within the 2026 NHL Draft, which is able to turn out to be a second spherical decide if the Kings win a playoff spherical, in addition to a conditional fourth spherical decide which hinges on the Kings profitable two playoffs sequence this season.
Los Angeles Kings evaluation and grade
There was dire want for Los Angeles to discover a legit, point-per-game famous person to attempt to put collectively a playoff run this season. Reality be advised, it’s been a down 12 months for the Kings who projected to be significantly better on paper than they’ve been on the ice.
Panarin is a legit star who can get 40-year-old Corey Perry off the highest line. Perry has been good in brief bursts, however injured far an excessive amount of to be a constant distinction maker. Panarin will solidify that prime line alongside Alex Laferriere and Adrian Kempe to kind a unit able to profitable video games for Los Angeles and getting them into the playoffs.
The most important query mark about this deal is what the expectations are for the Kings. This crew remains to be woefully missing at heart, don’t have any nice prospects on the place, and simply gave away the No. 1 prospect of their system for a number of years of Artemi Panarin — who can be 37-years-old on the finish of this deal.
In case your objective as a corporation is being content material with getting bounced early within the playoffs, then this can be a nice deal — it should obtain exactly that. I’m not shopping for for a second that Panarin is the lacking piece to place collectively a Stanley Cup run, particularly within the West up towards the likes of the Avs, Wild, and Stars.
The saving grace is that the Kings managed to tug off this deal with out together with a 1st spherical decide, which was being rumored as a part of the asking value for Panarin, together with a prime prospect.
New York Rangers evaluation and grade
For the lifetime of me I can’t fathom why the Rangers felt the necessity to rush the deal and pull the set off on a Panarin commerce earlier than the Olympics. With Panarin being a Russian nationwide he gained’t be in Milano Cortina for the video games, eliminating any danger of harm — and after the video games groups can be feeling froggy to make massive trades, particularly if a core participant will get injured.
I actually like Liam Greentree as a prospect. There’s potential for him to develop right into a High 6 ahead on the Rangers, however he’s totally untested. One would assume the Rangers would have a minimum of requested for a NHL-tested participant and a primary spherical decide to get this accomplished, making the deal reek of settling.
That is designed to turbo-charge the Rangers tank and rebuild, however this simply wasn’t a sensible deal. In the middle of every week we’ve seen talks of a Panarin deal shrink from touchdown a highly-valued younger participant like Jackson Blake (CAR) and a primary rounder, to now accepting a lot, a lot much less.
Unhealthy timing. Mediocre return. The Kings ongoing struggles will proceed till there’s a shakeup within the entrance workplace — beginning with Chris Drury.
