Artemi Panarin has recorded at least 92 points in his three mostly full seasons with the New York Rangers, and he almost certainly would have hit the 100 mark in 2019-20, when the NHL shut down after 70 games due to the COVID-19 pandemic with Panarin at 95 points. At age 32, the Breadman might be on his way to his best season in 2023-24, with 31 points in 21 games to help power the Blueshirts toward the top of the league.
That kind of resume would ordinarily make a player the darling of a fan base, especially in New York. Yet when it comes to Panarin and the Rangers faithful, the relationship status is … complicated.
Panarin has been more brilliant in a Blueshirt this season than in any since coming to Broadway as a big-money free agent on July 1, 2019, as he’s tied for fifth in the NHL in points. The pinpoint passing and vision and heavy, accurate shot have been more dynamic than ever as the player that has been one of the primary engines of the Rangers’ offense since arriving has them looking like a top Stanley Cup contender.
Panarin Powering Rangers’ Rise Toward Top of the NHL
Perhaps Panarin being “liberated” from former coach Gerard Gallant, who he was rumored to not see eye to eye with, has made a difference. Whatever the case, as stellar as Panarin has been in New York, he seems to have raised his game even further under new coach Peter Laviolette.
“He was really good in training camp, playing really hard,” Laviolette said. “I think he’s bought into that … we’re all trying to buy into that compete every day and make it habits and I think he’s done a really good job.
” … I think sometimes when you play that way and you get the chances and the results it builds confidence too within a line, and he looks like a confident player.”
Panarin’s confidence appears to be rubbing off on linemates Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafreniere, with the trio meshing perfectly and becoming by far the Rangers’ best line this season. There’s every reason to believe that will continue.
“It’s formed a line to me that is always on the hunt and is always dangerous offensively,” Laviolette said.
As these Rangers continue their surge, off to a 16-4-1 start that has them atop the NHL, the question will be whether the Blueshirts will get this version of Panarin for an expected playoff berth about five months from now.
Yes, that’s a ways off. Panarin’s complex track record on Broadway, though, means the question will linger throughout the season, even if in the background.
Panarin simply hasn’t been the same player in three postseason appearances for the Rangers. He managed a goal, assist and a minus-3 rating in the Blueshirts’ three-game sweep at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes in the “qualifying round” of the pandemic-altered 2019-20 season. He wasn’t bad in the club’s run to the Eastern Conference Final in 2022, recording 16 points in 20 games, though he was limited to one goal and three assists in the team’s seven-game victory over Carolina in the second round. Panarin was also a career-worst minus-5 in those playoffs.
Then came last season’s seven-game crash against the New Jersey Devils in the first round. The Rangers lost the series after winning the first two games on the road, and Panarin didn’t record another point after registering two assists in the first game.
That disaster was the most stark example of a record that can’t be ignored: As great as Panarin has been in the regular season, he has hardly been a difference-maker in the playoffs, not just for the Rangers but throughout his nine-year career.
Panarin’s Postseason Problems Remain a Mystery
The Breadman has delivered 20 points in 30 playoff games for the Rangers, Chicago Blackhawks and Columbus Blue Jackets. That’s decent for most players, but not nearly at the level he has consistently achieved during the regular season, when Panarin has averaged 1.1 points in 610 career games, including 1.3 for the Blueshirts. A plus-77 for his career in the regular season, Panarin is a minus-10 in the playoffs.
It’s difficult to say why Panarin’s impact slips in the postseason. Perhaps it’s a matter of whether his creative approach works in a tournament in which the intensity ramps up and space and time with the puck shrink. The Hurricanes seemed to have a formula in the 2022 postseason, pressuring Panarin relentlessly when he got the puck, particularly when he would gain the offensive zone and pull up along the boards. That’s when Panarin is often at his most dangerous as he looks to hit trailing teammates with cross-ice passes.
He didn’t play well at all against the Devils last season, although that was true of most of the Rangers over the final five games of that series. That being said, the Blueshirts didn’t sign him to a seven-year, $81.5 million contract to only dominate the regular season and go missing in a playoff matchup with one of the club’s biggest rivals.
Of course, it’s important to note that Panarin has been so productive during the season that fans have almost come to expect it – and there’s little doubt they appreciate it. The Rangers aren’t the same offensive outfit without Panarin’s dynamic presence that lifts teammates’ games and has played one of the biggest roles in the Blueshirts’ power play turning generally lethal. And of course, there’s the small matter of generating enough offense across an 82-game schedule to actually get into the postseason.
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That’s what makes the fan-player relationship in this case feel, well, uncertain. It’s impossible to be unhappy with such a productive superstar – even notoriously demanding New York fans can’t manage that. Yet, the greatest sports legacies in the Big Apple are forged via championships. Henrik Lundqvist is beloved by the Rangers fan base and one of the best goaltenders in NHL history, but he doesn’t occupy the same rarified air in franchise lore as Mark Messier, Brian Leetch, Mike Richter and Adam Graves, pillars of the team’s lone Stanley Cup winner over the past 83 years.
More Sound, Simplified Game Might be Behind Panarin’s Surge
Will 2024 be the year that Panarin carries his regular-season level of play into the spring? He isn’t just at his most productive this season; his game seems different – simplified, more north-south and less turnover-prone, the blind drop passes that so often led to turnovers in the past all but gone. Panarin’s 102 giveaways in 2022-23 were by far the highest total of his career; he’s committed only 12 this season. All of that has helped put him into early consideration for the Hart Trophy as league MVP.
“I think he’s taking another step, he’s hit another level, another gear this year,” Trocheck said. “I don’t know what it is. Same player, but a little more urgency maybe.”
Perhaps that’s a function of Laviolette’s expectations of his players, and Panarin is embracing the new coach’s ways as all of his teammates seemingly have. Laviolette has succeeded in turning this roster into a straight-ahead, defensively responsible outfit, something his two predecessors largely failed to accomplish.
Panarin’s play indicates that he’s clearly on board. Perhaps it’s this version of him that will be able to finally excel in the playoffs.
This much seems certain: For this Rangers team to capture a Stanley Cup, Panarin will have to be a superstar for at least part of that postseason run. If that never happens during his time on Broadway, and the Rangers don’t capture a championship, he’ll be remembered fondly, but perhaps with an asterisk in the collective mind of Blueshirts fans – the guy who couldn’t deliver in the biggest moments on the big stage that he so eagerly sought out four years ago.
