Artemi Panarin's time in New York is running out.

The New York Rangers may be headed for a split with one of their top stars.

The Rangers are off to a 3-3-1 start to the 2025-26 National Hockey League regular season but they may have bigger concerns right now with significant rumblings regarding the future of star forward Artemi Panarin. Panarin is entering the 7th year of a 7 year deal he signed with the New York Rangers all the way back in July of 2019 and there are real questions about whether or not his future will be with the Rangers.

On a recent episode of his podcast. National Hockey League insider Elliotte Friedman reported that the Rangers approached Panarin in an effort to get him to take a hometown discount. At the time Friedman drew the comparison to Los Angeles Kings forward Anze Kopitar who took a discount to remain with the Kings, but of course we have since seen the NHL's biggest star in Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid do that as well.

"The L.A Kings went to him and said 'We need you to take a little bit less it will really help us win' and Kopitar did that at 2x$7 [million]," revealed Friedman on the 32 Thoughts podcast. "I understand at some point this offseason the Rangers had that kind of conceptual discussion with Panarin."

According to the insider, it would seem that Panarin and his agent do not have any interest in working out a deal of that nature with the Rangers, which would explain why Panarin is still without a contract extension several games into the regular season.

Panarin is already 33 years of age and will turn 34 later this month which complicates matters for the Rangers who understandably don't want to invest huge money in a player that will be entering the latter stages of his career, but it also remains true that Panarin is one of the organization's most important offensive players. Panarin is fresh off of another great season in which he had 37 goals and 52 assists for 89 points in just 80 games last season, even more impressive when you consider the turmoil the Rangers went through last season with major in-season roster moves.

He's also off to a good start again this season with a goal and 5 assists for 6 points through the first 7 games of the season, which begs the question can the Rangers really afford to lose him?

The only thing that seems certain is that the Rangers and Panarin don't seem to share a vision of the future, and that could mean opportunity for other teams around the National Hockey League.