The New York Rangers and General Manager Chris Drury have officially waved the white flag on the 2025-26 season. After an up-and-down season and a brutal stretch after the 2026 Winter Classic, Drury sent out a letter to Rangers fans to let them know that they will begin a "retool" of the roster. That means trading away certain players in hopes they can get young players and draft picks in return to hopefully build a contender.
The first big domino that could fall and begin this rebuild is trading away Artemi Panarin. No one wants to trade away a superstar like Panarin, but he is set to be a free agent after this season so this is their only option left. The one thing is, Panarin must approve of the trade, which limits the pool of potential candidates. There is one team that has explored the possibility of trading for Panarin, and it's one that the rest of the NHL would hate.
The Athletic's Peter Baugh and and Vince Mercogliano ran through 10 potential destinations for Panarin. One of those teams is the Colorado Avalanche, who already considered adding him at the trade deadline.
"The Avalanche were in contention to land Panarin during 2019 free agency, and they have had internal discussions about pursuing him again at the deadline, per a league source. They have been the best team in the league to start the season. If Panarin wants a prime chance to win, Colorado makes sense, from his perspective," writes Baugh and Mercogliano.
Avalanche have discussed pursuing Artemi Panarin at trade deadline
Yes, for the first half of the season, nearly every team has been in contention for the playoffs. However, there has been one constant throughout, as the Avalanche are the undisputed favorites to win the Stanley Cup. This was a team so dominant, that they only had two regulation losses a couple of months into the season. They have the Hart Trophy favorite in Nathan MacKinnon and Norris Trophy contender Cale Makar.
As of this writing, the Avalanche have a 34-5-8 record for 79 points through 47 games. They statistically rank as the best offensive and defensive team in the league, as they average 4.02 goals per game and allow 2.30 goals per game, both of which are the best averages in hockey. This is truly an incredible feat, considering the Avalanche moved on from Mikko Rantanen next season.
They already tried to add him back in the summer of 2019, as Baugh and Mercogliano mention, but the Rangers won out. Less than seven years later, the Avalanche have a fantastic team, and will only get better if they were to add Panarin. Adding Panarin to the Avalanche could be a potential nightmare situation for the NHL. An already fantastic team will only get better.
As for what the Rangers would get in return, Baugh and Mercogliano mention that the Avalanche's prospect pool isn't the deepest. But, they do bring up the Avalanche's first round picks in 2027 and 2028 as possible pieces to the trade. They also bring up taking on Ross Colton's contract, which has one more year remaining for $4 million.
Trading away like Panarin would net a huge return. However, Panarin holds all the cards, which could reduce what the Rangers get back. We'll see what the Rangers can get for a couple of months remaining in the season before the start of the playoffs.