Players in the final year of a multi-year contract are now eligible to sign contract extensions. A few have but most of the headline names in the 2026 UFA class have yet to do so, including Rangers winger Artemi Panarin. Vincent Z. Mercogliano of the Rockland/Westchester Journal News argues that New York should hold off on trying to get the 33-year-old locked up to a new deal right away, wondering if there might be an opportunity to get a younger top-liner on the open market next summer when they will have a significant amount of cap space. Panarin saw his production drop considerably last season after putting up a career-high 120 points in 2023-24 but he still managed 37 goals and 52 assists in 80 games to lead New York in scoring once again. Panarin has a $11.643MM cap charge and given that he’ll be 34 when his next deal starts, he’ll be in tough to match that price tag at that time.
Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference:
- The Senators are making significant progress on securing the land agreement at LeBreton Flats as the site for their next arena, reports Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch. The team has been in discussions for this parcel of land for several years now and signed an agreement in principle to buy the land last September, assuming that an agreement on the price could be reached. After both sides had separate land valuations done that were well apart in value, there was still a gap to be bridged which apparently, progress is being made on. The belief is that even if this is finalized, the Sens will remain in their current arena for at least the next five years.
- Sabres prospect Yevgeni Prokhorov has signed a tryout deal with Dinamo Minsk of the KHL, per a team announcement on its Telegram page. The netminder was a seventh-round pick last month after spending last season in Dinamo’s MHL program where he posted a 2.19 GAA and a .903 SV% in 28 games. Prokhorov was a first-round pick in last month’s CHL Import Draft, going 23rd overall to OHL Flint, leading to some speculation that he could come to North America but it appears that isn’t on the table at the moment.
Feels like it’s the Dolan run Rangers again. I think they peaked in the ECF against Tampa a few years ago.
Everyone’s production tanked last year, not just Panarin. Credit that to the bleak “everyone’s available for trade” cloud that Drury put out there in November, which he did before the team sank in the standings.
Anyway, the real reason the team shouldn’t be too quick to sign Panarin to an extension is that there’s no reason to automatically believe that the team will be any better this year. They might want to flip him at the trade deadline to re-tool/rebuild for the 26-27 season.