Artemi Panarin immediately inks new contract minutes after trade out of New York

Following the trade on Wednesday, Artemi Panarin is signing a two-year, $22M extension with the Los Angeles Kings.

Right at the deadline on Wednesday ahead of the roster freeze for the length of the Olympic break, the New York Rangers traded the star winger to the Kings for a conditional third-round draft pick and prospect Liam Greentree.

Minutes later, Panarin then signed a contract extension with the Kings for two years at an $11 million annual average value. According to many insiders, the Kings were the team Panarin's camp wanted to go to in the end.

The decision comes one week after the Rangers began holding Panarin out of the lineup as part of roster management while exploring trade options, and at the very end of the deadline for the NHL’s 3 p.m. ET Olympic roster freeze. Panarin is in the final season of the seven-year, $81.5 million contract he signed in 2019, a deal that carries an $11.64-million cap hit and includes a full no-movement clause. And he fully used it.

Panarin led New York in scoring in each of the past six seasons and is coming off a career-best 2023-24 campaign in which he recorded 49 goals and 120 points. 

And now he starts a new chapter in LA.