What the Rangers do with Artemi Panarin will be the x-factor for their season

With the struggles of the New York Rangers catching many by surprise, there’s concern about what it could mean for the future of one of the team’s top stars.

The Rangers are 3-4-1 in their first eight games of the season, having scored just 16 goals thus far. It’s leading many to wonder whether the team should make some moves regarding forward Artemi Panarin. The Russian sniper is heading into the final season of his seven-year contract that he signed in July 2019.

It wouldn’t be easy to move Panarin’s contract. Not only does he have a full no-move clause, but he carries a cap hit of $11,642,857, currently taking up 12.2% of the salary cap.

On Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, David Pagnotta joins Irfaan Gaffar and Colby Cohen to discuss what the Rangers might do with Panarin this year.

David Pagnotta: They’re in flux. With a guy like Panarin, who’s a UFA at the end of the year, with whatever direction this team is eventually going in, they have to make an internal decision as to what they want to do with him. Do you go out and try to hold on to him and add additional pieces? Or do you move him out, bring in young assets, bring in additional pieces? This would be something later in the season anyway. But try to retool on the fly. This is not a team that’s going to go through a quasi-rebuild like they did a number of years ago, where they kind of faked it, ended up getting Lafreniere first overall and then decided to just keep adding.

This is a team that’s going to have to be in a position – it’s a “retool”. So, depending on how this season goes…can other pieces on this club step up in order to push them a little bit forward? Can they get into a consistent discussion of playoff contention, and, if not, then Chris Drury has some serious questions that need to be answered.

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…