Panarin send Rangers a devastating message with contract extension

News of the blockbuster trade between the New York Rangers and the LA Kings has left hockey fans in a state of shock. The purported massive return the Blueshirts could have gotten melted faster than ice cream under the hot summer Sunday.

But the shoddy return wasn’t bad enough. A former first-round pick and a conditional third-round pick were not nearly as devastating as the message Panarin sent with his contract extension.

As Elliotte Friedman reported, Panarin agreed to a two-year, $11 million contract extension with the Kings.

That was a clear salvo to the Rangers that Panarin didn’t want to be in New York. All the talk about not taking a short-term deal or offering a hometown discount amounted to nothing more than talk.

That extension is something the Rangers could have easily worked out with Panarin. But it seems the message was that Panarin wanted to bleed the Blueshirts dry. If they paid up, he would have stayed. Otherwise, he would take his show elsewhere.

Now, Panarin has shown his true colors. He was willing to take a shorter-term deal, likely from the team most desperate for a bona fide scorer. While there’s always the chance this deal is just a stopgap on the road to a bigger contract, the fact is that this extension is a slap in the face to the entire Rangers organization and fanbase.

Rangers fans can bid Panarin good riddance

It’s now clear that Panarin didn’t want to be in New York. That’s why Rangers fans should bid Panarin good riddance. If he were that unhappy in New York, the club would be better off without him. It wouldn’t be a stretch to speculate that the entire situation had consumed the team.

Now that Panarin is officially gone, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Rangers play without a huge anchor weighing them down. It wouldn’t even be a stretch to see the Blueshirts climb out of the Eastern Conference cellar.

While making the playoffs may seem like a foregone conclusion at this point, it wouldn’t be outrageous to see the Rangers go on a bit of a run.

It’s incredible how much of a distraction a situation such as this can be on team. Of course, there’s always the chance the wheels completely fall off the Rangers. But until that actually happens, it’s safe to believe that the Rangers have nowhere to go from here but up.