Back in January, the New York Rangers and general manager Chris Drury let it be known that they were going to retool, not rebuild, their roster. One of Drury's first moves was to trade away winger Artemi Panarin, who was set to hit free agency at the end of this past season. Since Panarin carried a full no-movement clause, it limited what kind of return the Rangers could receive. So, they sent him to the Los Angeles Kings, where he signed a two-year, $11 million per year contract, while receiving prospect Liam Greentree.
Replacing Panarin's production was always going to be difficult, as he will go down as one of the Rangers' best free agent signings. They did so by trading for Pavel Dorofeyev, who was a restricted free agent with the Vegas Golden Knights, and signed him to a seven-year, $77 million contract. The Rangers are hoping that Dorofeyev can be the young scorer the team desperately needed.
Even by getting Dorofeyev, trading away Panarin was a gamble in terms of consistent production. As it turns out, Drury will have to prove the rest of the league wrong.
NHL Network unveiled their rankings of the top 20 wingers in the league. Panarin made the list at No. 12. As for the Rangers, they didn't have a single winger on the list. Yes, even Dorofeyev didn't make the cut.
Rangers don't have a single winger in NHL Network's Top 20 rankings post-Artemi Panarin plan
Getting rid of Panarin was always going to be a risk for the Rangers. Sure, they might have wanted to move on from him and avoid giving him another contract, but they had to be sure they could replace his production.
Through his seven year career with the Rangers, Panarin has never put up fewer than 94 points in a full season (not including the shortened 2020-21 season). That was always going to be difficult to move on from. Even this past season on a down year for Panarin and the Rangers, he put up 57 points in 52 games.
Now, Panarin is on the Los Angeles Kings for the next two years after a 26 game regular season stint after the trade. Now, he's reunited with Peter Laviolette, who was his head coach when he put up a career high 120 points in the 2023-24 season. Not to mention, he gets to team up alongside Adrian Kempe and, potentially, ex-Ranger Mats Zuccarello.
The pressure is even higher for Pavel Dorofeyev to replace Artemi Panarin
Look, the Rangers' chances of getting a young, scoring forward was going to be difficult entering this offseason. That's because the free agent market dried up, leaving teams to have to take a chance on the trade market. Getting Dorofeyev felt like a pipedream, considering it seemed infeasible that the Golden Knights would let a player like him leave. But, with limited cap space, the Rangers made the call to the Golden Knights and to Dorofeyev to finalize a trade and a lucrative contract.
But the pressure is on for Dorofeyev to be a solution to improve their offense and to replace Panarin. In the past two seasons, Panarin showed that he can score 30-plus goals a year, which is welcoming for the Rangers. But, he'll have to prove it's not because it was a product of playing a star-studded Golen Knights roster. Let's face it, Vegas has a more loaded roster than New York.
Panarin did set the bar for future Rangers free agent signings. We'll see if Dorofeyev can live up to that over the next seven years. If he doesn't perform up to the standards of his contract, that will fall upon Drury as well.
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