New York Rangers Sign Artemi Panarin to Seven-Year Deal Worth $81.5 Million
The AAV of the deal is roughly $11.6 million a season
The New York Rangers are signing top free agent Artemi Panarin, and you could say the Breadman got paid.
OFFICIAL: #NYR have agreed to terms with free agent forward Artemi Panarin. pic.twitter.com/EoptmQvZfL
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) July 1, 2019
NYR land the biggest UFA fish of the day: https://t.co/z5bF38SPRM
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) July 1, 2019
Panarin looks like $81.5M over 7 to NYR
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) July 1, 2019
Panarin is coming off a career year in which he tallied 87 points, 28 goals and 59 assists, in 79 games for the Columbus Blue Jackets. The newest Broadway Blueshirt went undrafted, and the 2018-19 season was just Panarin’s fourth in the NHL.
He signed with the Chicago Blackhawks as a free agent in April of 2015. Prior to that, Panarin appeared in 263 KHL games where he posted a line of 76-107-183 (0.70 P/GP).
Since making his NHL debut in 2015, Panarin is eighth among all players in points (320), 23rd in goals (116), and 11th in assists (204).When broken down to just 5v5 situations, Panarin ranks 6th in total points (194), 21st in goals (69), and fourth in assists (125).
There is no doubt that Panarin is a star player who has had an incredible start to his NHL career, and he joins a Ranger squad chock full of youngsters who can learn from him as a player, especially countrymen wingers such as Vitali Kravtsov and Pavel Buchnevich.
The addition of Panarin means the team will need to make some more minor moves — similar to the Jimmy Vesey trade — in order to finalize deals with existing RFAs, but that’s an OK problem to have when you land someone like Artemi Panarin.
The Rangers’ rebuild certainly has been kicked into another gear, and this is going to be an even more entertaining team to watch next season.
