Though the New York Rangers failed to make the postseason a year after winning the Presidents' Trophy enroute to an Eastern Conference Finals appearance, left winger Artemi Panarin continued to prove why he's one of their most valuable players. The 32-year-old from Korkino had another strong campaign in 2024-25, his 10th season in the league, managing to play in all but two regular-season games for the Rangers, while potting 37 goals and 52 assists for 89 points. Although Panarin's plus/minus rating took a nosedive (-9 compared to +18 in 2023-24), he still easily managed a 30+ goal season for roughly the 3rd consecutive season. Panarin also far and wide led the team in total points this season with those 89 points, ahead of the likes of Mika Zibanejad (62) and Adam Fox (61).
Expectations
Panarin has actually done something quite remarkable since joining the Rangers for the 2019-20 season after coming over from a two-year stint in Columbus. During each season he's been a Blueshirt, Panarin has led the team in total points. This includes 95 points in 2019-20, 58 in 2020-21, 96 in 2021-22, 92 in 2022-23, and 120 in 2023-24. It's one thing to lead the team in points for maybe one or two seasons in a row. But Panarin has now done that for six! consecutive seasons. If anyone else on the Rangers had that capability or achieved something similar, the team maybe could've gone on multiple deep playoff runs during that time. Panarin has undoubtedly been the brightest spot on a Rangers team that is gonna try to go for much more in the 2025-26 season, and if he keeps his play up with a few others pitching in alongside, who knows? New York could be back in the hunt for a Stanley Cup, which would only be their first in over 30 years. No pressure!
Performance
For starters, compare Panarin's stats this season to previous campaigns, and you can theoretically grade him on individual stats like games played, goals and assists for points, and so on. 2024-25 marks the 3rd consecutive season Panarin has played in at least 80 regular-season games, as he played in all 82 the past two seasons. Easily an A+ mark there. Now, how about goals and points? Same deal there, three consecutive 25+ goal seasons for the Breadman, a standard delivery for watching a guy like him. Moving on to plus/minus rating, which, if you don't know, is a measurement of how many goals are scored by a player by that player themselves and if their opponents score while they're also on the ice. Panarin had a +18 rating in 2023-24.
However, this season unfortunately saw Panarin finish with a negative rating for the first time in his career. That's a problem that affects his overall offensive performance, which is why it gets a B grade. And adding to that was a significant points drop from 2023-24, going from 120 to 89 points on the season. The last thing we'll grade Panarin on is his penalty minutes log. Like in past seasons, it's been around 25 or below, which is good for a player of Panarin's caliber. With that in mind, we'll give him an A grade for his time spent in the box when the Rangers have had to kill penalties on the Breadman himself.
Overall, Artemi Panarin had another decently solid season, though his first time negative plus/minus rating and a rather uncharacteristic points drop do hurt his performance somewhat significantly. Finishing with just 89 points compared to 120 the previous season is definitely a serious problem, not just for guys like Panarin, but for any player in today's league. But Rangers fans need not worry, it's unlikely he'll finish in such a spot again, and considering his other strong marks in the core stats in other seasons past, you could honestly overlook that brief decline for this season. A lot depends on whether or not the Rangers make a return to the postseason in 2025-26, and if so, make a much smoother playoff run than the way they slogged through the 2022-23 playoffs.