What do Wayne Gretzky, Joe Mullen, Tim Kerr, Adam Oates, and Artemi Panarin have in common? They are the only undrafted NHL players since 1988-89 to score 45 goals in the regular season.
On Wednesday night, with the opening goal of the New York Rangers game, Panarin netted his 45th goal of the season, tying Oates, who scored 45 goals in 1992-93.
Before the 2023-24 season, Panarin’s best season came during his first campaign in New York, 2019-20, when he scored 32 goals. As a three-time 30-goal scorer, he’s broken through the proverbial glass ceiling this season, reaching 40 goals and cracking 100 points for the first time.
Related: Rangers’ Panarin & Trocheck Pursuing Playoff Redemption in 2024
With 108 points through two periods of play against the Devils, Panarin is the NHL’s fourth-highest scorer after Nikita Kucherov, Nathan MacKinnon, and Connor McDavid. Meanwhile, he ranks sixth in goal-scoring behind Auston Matthews, Sam Reinhart, Zach Hyman, MacKinnon, and David Pastrnak.
With six games left in the regular season, the 32-year-old Russian superstar has the chance to score 50 goals, joining Alex Ovechkin, Pavel Bure, Alex Mogilny, Sergei Fedorov, Ilya Kovalchuk, and Evgeni Malkin as other Russians who’ve reached that mark.
Considering that Panarin is leading the Rangers in scoring by 34 points, there have been discussions that he deserves to be nominated for the Hart Trophy and could be a front-runner to win it by carrying New York to a potential Metropolitan Division title.
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