Panarin’s back, a new TV deal for the NHL & more

Artemi Panarin surprised all observers by participating in the New York Rangers practice in Boston as they prepare to take on the Bruins.  While Panarin will not play Thursday, his return comes just in time as the Rangers are seriously in danger of falling out of playoff contention.  Even with their best player back in the lineup, it will be a challenge for the Blueshirts to accomplish that.

After practice Coach David Quinn wouldn’t commit to when he would be back in action, saying that he is day-to-day, but all indications are that he should be back by the weekend.

Quinn did say that there is no need for Panarin to address his issues with the team formally. He said that the players had been in contact with him and they are behind him.

In other lineup notes, it will be Alexandar Georgiev back in goal against the Bruins.  He has started three of the four games against Boston this season with the Rangers going 1-1-1.   He has played well against them with a 2.53 Goals Against Average and a .929 Save Percentage.

There were no other revelations about the lineup against Boston.

The TV deal

The NHL announced a new seven-year TV deal with ESPN and Disney, returning the NHL to the their former home.  The deal begins in the 2021-22 season and runs through the 2027-28 season.  While Disney networks including ABC, ESPN and Hulu will be the primary home of NHL hockey, there is room for other networks, such as NBC to be a television partner. For example, as part of the deal ABC gets the Stanley Cup Finals in four of the seven years so the NHL is looking for another television deal that will include the other Finals, half of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and regular season games.

While financial terms were not disclosed, it has been reported that the deal is worth as much as $2.5 billion.  It’s an increase over the NHL’s current deal with NBC that was for 10 years and $2 billion.

It’s good news for NHL teams as the additional revenue should result in an increase in the salary cap.  With more television revenue to be negotiated as well as a bigger piece of the legal sports betting pie, wealthy teams like the Rangers will reap the benefits by being able to spend to the cap maximum that should increase substantially.  That’s important considering that all of the young players will be looking for substantial pay hikes in the coming years when their entry level deals expire.

Taxi squad shuffle

If you track NHL transactions you will see a lot of players moving from the Rangers roster to the taxi quad and back  and players moving from the Wolf Pack to the taxi squad and back.  Some of the moves are related to the salary cap and some of is to relieve the roster overload in Hartford and give the Rangers brass a chance to see some prospects.  For example, over the last few days Kaapo Kakko, K’Andre Miller, Tony Bitetto and Keith Kinkaid have bounced between the NHL roster and the taxi squad.  Meanwhile, Hartford players like Patrick Newell, Patrick Khodorenko, Ty Ronning and Jonny Brodzinski had made the move to the and from the taxi squad.

Kravtsov’s KHL season ending?

Vitali Kravtsov’s Traktor team is trailing 3-1 in their playoffs series  against Salavat Yulaev and they play game five on Thursday on the road in Ufa.  If Traktor loses, that means Kravtsov’s KHL season is over and the Rangers prospect will be free to return to North America to continue his attempt to become a Broadway Blueshirt.

It’s going to be an interesting call for the Rangers to decide what they will do with him.  It will take a while for him to be available to play due to COVID protocols, but he has played 49 regular season and four playoff games in the second best hockey league in the world finishing the regular season with 16 goals and 24 points and a plus/minus rating of +8.

He could be ready to make his Rangers debut before the April12 trade deadline.

The Entry Draft schedule & possible rule changes

There had been some discussion of the NHL Entry Draft  date changing, but Bob McKenzie of NBCSN said that the draft will take place as scheduled on July 23-24.  He also reported what had been previously reported, that there are some potential changes in the draft lottery. Here are the three biggest changes:

1. Teams would be limited to two lottery wins over a five year period.  The big news from McKenzie was that this rule would be moving forward and previous wins wouldn’t count.  That would mean if the Rangers are in the lottery, they could win it again.
2. Teams would not be able to jump more than 10 spots.  McKenzie said that this could be called the New York Rangers rule after the last draft.
3. The lottery would be for the top two spots in the draft instead of the top three.

If you were curious, if the Rangers miss the playoffs, they would qualify for the lottery because they currently have the ninth worst record in the NHL.  The way things are going, Jeff Gorton needs to hold onto that NYPD shield from the late Steven McDonald as they could be getting another crack at the top two draft picks.

You almost want to see that happen to see Steve Yzerman’s head explode if the Rangers move up and Detroit loses out on a top pick.

The standings

No East Division teams were in action on Wednesday so the standings remain the same.  There’s no need t o go into how important these games against Boston are for the Rangers.

Thursday games

Rangers at Boston
Penguins at Sabres
Devils at Islanders
Capiitals at Flyers

Standings

1- Islanders           26   16-6-4     36 points
2- Washington     25   15-6-4     34 points
3- Pittsburgh        25    15-9-1    31 points
4- Boston              23   13-6-4     30 points
5- Philadelphia     23   13-7-3     29 points
6- Rangers            24   10-11-3   23 points
7- New Jersey       22     8-11-3   19 points
8- Buffalo              23     6-14-4    16 points