3:13 p.m.: Both teams have made the terms as reported below official. The Kings do not have an open roster spot and will need to make a corresponding move to add Panarin. Considering he’s already the owner of a U.S. work visa, a non-roster list stint for him isn’t likely.
2:03 p.m.: The Kings have acquired star winger Artemi Panarin from the Rangers, ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Emily Kaplan report. The Blueshirts are getting top prospect Liam Greentree and a conditional third-round pick in return. Panarin, a pending free agent, has now agreed to a two-year, $22MM extension in L.A., per Kaplan. The Rangers are also retaining 50% of Panarin’s current $11.64MM cap hit to bring it down to $5.82MM for the Kings, per Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic.
The conditions on that draft pick are complex, as Vince Z. Mercogliano of The Athletic reports. At the very least, the Rangers will receive the better of the two third-rounders the Kings own in 2026 (their own and the Stars’). If L.A. wins one playoff round this year, though, the selection upgrades to their 2026 second-rounder. If they win at least two rounds, their 2028 fourth-rounder also gets added in the deal.
L.A. was one of many teams that were still viewed as landing spots for Panarin – with an extension – as late as this morning. While they were never considered a true front-runner, they got the deal done. In the end, they ended up being the only destination for which Panarin would waive his no-movement clause, per Mollie Walker of the New York Post. Being one of the few teams that were willing to part ways with their No. 1 prospect was also surely an attractive option for Rangers general manager Chris Drury, making him feel comfortable pulling the trigger on an L.A.-or-nothing scenario well ahead of the deadline but before the Olympic roster freeze.
While the 34-year-old Panarin had a slow start to the year, he’s been his usual self from November onward, clicking well over a point per game. He got up to 19 goals and 38 assists for 57 points in 52 games before the Rangers scratched him following their Jan. 26 win over the Bruins, holding him out of the lineup to prevent an injury from complicating any trade. That still has him tied for 24th in the league in scoring and makes him L.A.’s leading scorer by a significant margin over Adrian Kempe and his 45 points.
Trading Panarin, one of the most dynamic talents in franchise history and one of the most successful big-ticket free agent signings in recent memory, became a reality last month when the Rangers announced their intent to undergo another multi-year retool. Reports quickly indicated that they informed Panarin he wouldn’t be offered an extension as part of that plan. They started their sell-off by dealing Carson Soucy to the Islanders last week, but they get after it in a big way here.
The Kings have teetered on the edge of the Western Conference playoff picture for much of the season. They currently sit one point back of the Kraken for the final wild-card spot with a game in hand. That record has been boosted by a league-high 14 overtime/shootout losses, too. They’ve only won 14 games in regulation, ironically tied with the Rangers for the second-lowest in the league.
That sluggish record can be almost entirely attributed to an inept offense, as the Kings score 2.57 goals per game, fifth-worst in the NHL. That simply hasn’t been enough to earn consistent wins in front of one of the league’s better overall defensive systems and goaltending situations. By giving up their universally lauded No. 1 prospect in Greentree, they’re making a clear bet that Panarin – 20th in the league at 1.10 points per game – will be the needle-mover that gets their offense out of the basement and propels them to their fifth consecutive playoff berth.
In a season that marks the last gasp for franchise icon Anže Kopitar, still chugging along as the Kings’ first-line center, he could spend his final few months in the NHL with the most purely talented linemate of his career (save for a Marián Gáborík, depending on how you rate him). Their lack of depth scoring has forced head coach Jim Hiller to deploy his top weapons all on different units. Kempe has anchored the second line as of late with the ageless Corey Perry and newly-minted center Alex Laferriere, while the high-ceiling but inconsistent trio of Kevin Fiala, Quinton Byfield, and Andrei Kuzmenko currently makes up their third line.
If the Kings waited until the deadline to make the move, they could’ve taken Panarin on at full price. But as of today, they’d only accumulated $8.4MM in cap space, per PuckPedia. That meant significant retention was necessary to get a deal done if L.A. wasn’t sending back a roster player. While Panarin, even at under $6MM against the cap, takes up a good chunk of that space, they still have a fair amount of flexibility to make another pickup on the other side of the Olympic break if they choose.
Los Angeles gives up the brightest forward prospect they’ve had in quite some time to make it happen. Greentree, 20, was the 26th overall pick in the 2024 draft and was ranked as the #47 prospect in the entire league by The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler last summer. He’s yet to play a pro game but has shown up as an outright star in junior hockey. He’s served as the captain for the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires since his draft year and finished third in the league in scoring last season, churning out 49 goals and 119 points in 64 games.
It’s worth noting there’s been a significant drop-off in production in 2025-26. He was good for 1.86 points per game last year, but that figure has now dropped to 1.32. That’s still indicative of Greentree being a surefire top-nine piece, especially after a 90-point draft year, but expecting him to ever reach Panarin’s 100-point heights as an NHLer should be overzealous.
That said, the Rangers have had a checkered history with prospect development when the picks come from inside the house. Getting a blue-chip name from outside the organization is an extremely meaningful boost to their long-term outlook, and they’ve now ensured they’ll have six picks in the first three rounds of this year’s draft.
For the Kings, there’s also the matter of getting a true star forward signed to what comes across as an extremely reasonable extension. Not only is Panarin agreeing to a small pay cut in a rising cap environment, but he’ll only lock the Kings into their commitment through the 2027-28 season. That’s a rare insurance policy for L.A. if Panarin’s production declines with age sooner than they hope – especially as other teams were willing to offer Panarin a four-year deal in the range of $11.75MM per season, Frank Seravalli of Victory+ reports.
Image courtesy of Brad Penner-Imagn Images.
Holy underwhelming return, Batman
Eh on 2nd thought seems alright without the extension
You get Liam Greentree. Rangers win this one
Panarin just signed a two year 22 mill extension with the Kings.
And with those playoff pick conditions, it looks a little better for the rangers. Seems pretty reasonable overall
Are you serious? Must be either a Kings or Islanders fan
No
Drury might be the worst gm in the NHL
Without a doubt the worst GM in the league. Should’ve been fired last summer, I hope for NYR fans he does get fired in a near future. He completely ruined this team
So he would only agree to the LA trade then?
Exactly
Welp, this means he didn’t want to go to Washington. Any of their #4-7 prospects would’ve been a better return than Greentree.
Ummmm no
That’s simply not true.
Interesting to see if the Kings have the sack to sign him to an extension.
Big sack!
Kings sacked up. 😉
Article says he signed a 2 year $22 million extension.
NYR salary dumped C Soucy for a 3rd but could only get a prospect and conditional 3rd back for their best player…..hard to argue that Drury is not the worst GM in the NHL
I think the thing that didn’t help was him having his NTC.
What did you expect Drury to do? He and the Rangers have absolutely zero leverage. If Panarin had said I only what to play in LA and nowhere else, which he very well could/may have done, the Kings could have offered a dozen pucks and NYR would have to take it. This deal was always going to be nothing better than a prospect or two and a mid-level pick or two. Drury’s mistake was not trading him last year with a full year to play. If they weren’t going to extend him, that’s what they should have done. Might have had more interested parties if they had tried to do this deal last off season.
You don’t seem to grasp the concept of leverage.
So glad the sharks ducked this one. Also glad the kings got him as it will drag out their misery a few more years. Also glad the Rags got a paltry return. Now if only the Devils didn’t make a weird trade for Bjug this would have been just about the best trade sequence… #rivalries
How are all those Stanley Cup banners looking in San Jose big talker LOL. Take your time looking for them in the rafters.
Panarin is the most talented offense move forward LA has had this century. This won’t help San Jose lmao
Sharks fans man, lol.
Kopitar? Good two way play accounts for a bit more than just goals.
NYR-NJD is only a rivalry to the devils and their fans. How much of a “rivalry” is Islanders-Devils? In other words, it’s only the Rangers that makes it a rivalry
Wasn’t the team I was suspecting to obtain Artemi Panarin but the Los Angeles Kings gave up rather little for him, surprisingly. GM Ken Holland really stole this one apparently from GM Chris Drury.
The question remains does Panarin get the extension with LA or is he just a rental and hits the open market in the summer?…It will be interesting how it plays out here.
2 years 22 mil extension
Some additional information according to Emily Kaplan from ESPN it came down to LA, Carolina, Tampa and Washington as Panarin told the Rangers that he wanted to go to LA. There you have it.
Its not the case Ken Holland picked Panarin from NYR.
It was Panarin to pick LAK as a his team.
Wow, surprised Yzerman couldn’t have offered at least this much
He didn’t want to go to Detroit…LA was the only team he approved.
THANK GOD
someone that can score. It will cut Fiala’s ice time. No more stupid penalties
A three year deal would be ok with me. Kings have almost 30 mill in space this only one rfa of any significance to resign. So that still leaves them 15 mill to go find a center on the trade market
I thought he would be good for the Sharks. Adds some offense and experience to a young, very talented core. I agree, as a Kings fan I’m not thrilled adding this guy to an already old team.
Greentree ain’t so bad, he was just ranked the #33 prospect in the league. Sure, I would’ve liked more in return but the contract extension demand and no trade clause really hurt the potential return. It’s still a decent haul though given the circumstances. #33 prospect is better than a 1st round pick that would have a very small chance to reach top 50 prospect status. I can’t stand Drury either and he’s a terrible GM but this was a tough spot to be in. The real problem is that he’s the one that put them into this spot to begin with by being a moron.
They are already working on an extension.
I’m going to go the opposite way with the comments here. I think the Rangers won this one. The Kings add an aging winger to an already aging team. It’s a lose-lose for them. It’s not going to push them deep into the playoffs, and if he’s a rental they pod way too much. If they extend him then it uses money needed for a 1C next year. Meanwhile, Greentree is going to be a very good NHL player.
2 year extension and the cost was very low, this answer is cope. The reason it was so cheap is he only wanted to come to LA so they had no leverage.
So much for that “only east coast teams” bit.
This is extremely good for LA, Greentree is a solid prospect but not a certain top 6.
The key is the extension value. If reasonable, we’ll down LA. If not, lots of money for an old guy, even if he is still producing.
Old team getting older , it will take more then that to beat the central teams.
Yes. Drury is an idiot. But he wasn’t the GM that gave Bread that NTC. If you remember, the Rangers were on the other side of this when Kane only would waive for NY. Bottom line, not an exciting return. I guess Drury could have called the Kings and Panarin’s bluff and dragged this thru the break. He could have revisited when trading reopened and hoped the Kings moved a little. But with Panarin demanding the Kings……
We’ll see how Green a Tree Liam turns into (had to do it! 😄), but I expected a better return for Panarin than that. Good work by the Kings.
Good deal with NY retaining 1/2. Kings still need a Center & top 4 Dman.
Ah, the next Josh Ho-Sang.
Repent now.
Kings just decided to mortgage the future on a guy who only makes them slightly better. Luck and Holland need to realize that’s you aren’t winning the cup anytime soon (you could add McDavid and it’s still not a Stanley cup team. Blow it up
People don’t realize that’s even their 2 cups came as low wildcard teams and rode a hot goalie
We have never been a 1st place team
You have a pretty solid goalie situation right now. As stated above, could use some help on D and maybe another C, but as for goalies and chances, seems like you could make it work, especially if the kings have the 11+M someone above mentioned.
GO KINGS GO!!! LETTTSSSS GOOOOOO!!! Welcome to LA, Panarin!!
LA, where old players go to earn big bucks while fading away.
I gotta give credit to Kenny! This is better than a Legwand, or Cole or Kyle Quincy TDL trades! BTW, the 1st for Quincy got Tampa Vassy!!!
This Panarin move will attract a couple more good players to LA. It may happen before the TDL, but certainly by the good ole summertime!
This is the same scenario that the Rangers used to their advantage when they traded for Kane who only agreed to go to NYR. Now they are on the other side. They only gave up 2nd and 4th rd. picks to Chicago (who will end up with nothing based on the results so far from the 2 guys they drafted).