Artemi Panarin Emerges as Possible Off-Season Trade Candidate After Shocking Report

New York Rangers forward Artemi Panarin emerged as a possible off-season trade candidate in a shocking report.

For the first time since 2021, the New York Rangers missed the playoffs following a disappointing season that saw general manager Chris Drury trade away many important players.

Then, after the season, the organization confirmed that they were parting ways with Peter Laviolette as head coach and hired Mike Sullivan to replace him.

It seems a busy summer awaits the Rangers if they want to get back on top. Two key players will be free agents: Will Cuylle and K'Andre Miller. If he wants to keep them, Drury will have to work his magic.

The Fourth Period's David Pagnotta believes that James Dolan, the Rangers' owner, wants to see the management being aggressive in the offseason, and even threw around Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin's names in the mix.

Here's what he said in a video recently posted on X:

" They've got about $9.6 million in cap space, something like that. They've got to get K'Andre Miller signed, they've got to get Will Cuylle signed, and then they'll have about $3 million left to play with. So, by the looks of things, it's going to be another aggressive offseason.

Now, for the New York Rangers the owner, James Dolan, wants that to happen. So we'll see exactly what kind of tricks Chris Drury has up his sleeve. Don't be surprised to hear Chris Kreider's name out there again. Don't be surprised to hear Mika Zibanejad's name either, even with a full no-movement clause.

And in the last few days, I'm starting to hear some interesting whispers surrounding Artemi Panarin. Now, I don't know if he's fully available, but he's got one year left on his contract, and they've got to decide whether they want to keep going with this core group or if they can move Panarin, get a significant return, and use that cap space - along with some of that capital - to rejig the roster.

I don't know if that's the path they're going to take, and it might be totally premature for me to even bring it up, but we're going to hear some interesting storylines about how the New York Rangers retool for next season. "