New York Rangers’ Artemi Panarin Is on a Historic Heater
By Conor Power
Artemi Panarin has been the best Ranger so far in the young season. No one is going to deny that. New York’s breadman has been so historically hot that the Rangers superstar has rewritten record books with his white-hot start to the season. Living up to the stardom he receives, Panarin has rebounded from the shambolic playoff performance with extreme conviction.
However, this idea of Panarin being an elite player should not be new. In 283 games with the Rangers, Panarin has scored 110 goals and 257 assists for 367 points. That is good enough for 25th all-time in the organization’s history, as he passed Bill Cook with his multipoint game against the Devils. At the rate he’s going, he will crack the top 20 of this list by the all-star break.
Returning to how hot Panarin has been recently, he became the first Ranger since Jaromir Jagr in 2005-06 to record five consecutive multi-point games. He has the longest point streak to start a season in New York Rangers history. He’s closing in on some elite company with his production, and it’s great to see for Ranger fans worldwide.
Since shaving his head in the summer and making netminder Igor Shesterkin cry with the new style, Panarin has shown that he is one of the best players in the NHL. Given his start to the season, there could be hardware in the immediate future of the Breadman. It’s probably unfair to say he will win the Rocket Richard Trophy as the league’s top goal scorer or the Art Ross as the points leader, but maybe something else.
It’s too early to look at who will win the trophies at the end of the season anyway. Still, if Panarin finds a way to sustain this for the entire marathon this league calls a season, he will undoubtedly be in the conversation. We know that Panarin is an elite player at his best, and whatever he did over the summer or new head coach Peter Laviolette has him doing is working majorly now.