MTPS: Artemi Panarin and the Road to Hell
Jeff Gorton brought in Artemi Panarin to deliver the Rangers a Stanley Cup. Could Chris Drury do more to achieve that promise by trading the Breadman?
Picture this: you’re planning to go see a movie by yourself. The movie starts at 8:00pm, but you’ve got some time to kill so you decide to stop at a bar and have a couple of drinks to kill time. Natalie Portman walks in. She sits down next to you, buys you a drink and, after some idle chit-chat, asks if you would like to go on a spontaneous trip with her to Turks and Caicos. Now, you came into the night with a plan, and this will change that plan. But understanding that this is a rare opportunity that may never again present itself, your only option is to follow the immortal words of Winston Zeddemore.
This is how I feel about the Rangers signing Artemi Panarin in 2019.
Jeff Gorton had a plan. But then Artemi Panarin wanted to sign here and so the plan went away. I get it, I really do. He was a great player who made it very clear that he wanted the New York Rangers. The funny (not haha funny) thing is that this was eerily similar to a move that another Garden resident made.
Similar to Carmelo Anthony, the issue here was that Artemi Panarin was like Dr. John, in the right place at the wrong time. Gorton was midway through tearing the team asunder (poorly), had hired a coach who was supposed to use his expertise with college players to develop the young players in the pipeline (really he was hired because Gorton has never met an unqualified friend he wouldn’t hire for a prominent position) and the acquisitions of Panarin and Jacob Trouba, and hiring of John Davidson forced Gorton to reverse course. The result? The Rangers did their best Mega Maid impersonation.
To be clear:
- None of this is on Panarin. He's been fantastic.
- I do not think Gorton made a mistake signing Panarin. I think he made a ton of mistakes in team building after signing Panarin.
So, what do I think?
