Doubts casted on Artemi Panarin’s future in New York!

New York Rangers general manager Chris Drury has been quite busy this offseason, and no other significant moves are expected to come until the start of training camp in September. However, questions have been raised on what is coming next for star forward Artemi Panarin in the Big Apple. With how unpredictable the Rangers’ GM has been, some insiders and pundits are wondering if Panarin could be shipped out too after monster trades were pulled earlier on this summer with Chris Kreider off to the Anaheim Ducks and 25-year-old defenseman K’Andre Miller traded to the Carolina Hurricanes.

Panarin is the best free-agent signing in Rangers history, and became eligible to sign an extension on July 1. However, GM Drury is apparently not in any rush to get his name on the dotted line, and according to Elliotte Friedman, this could be the first sign of doubts on Panarin’s future in New York.

“We’ll see here what happens with Artemi Panarin,” Friedman dropped on the last 32 Thoughts podcast of the summer and offered no further context here.

Panarin is set to hit the open market in less than 12 months, and he will do so at the same time as a loaded free agent class, along with most notably Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, Kirill Kaprizov and Cale Makar.

As of now per Puck Pedia, the Rangers are scheduled to have more than $29 million to play with next July, which would be more than enough to fit McDavid or someone else under the cap, even if he opts for the max contract, which would be 20 percent of the projected $104 million. Under that scenario, the most the average annual value can come in at is $20.8 million.

Friedman did not specify if his comments hinted at the possibility that the Rangers will prefer to go after another top free agent, trade Panarin in a monster deal ahead of the deadline or simply look to keep the Russia superstar in the fold at a discount price.

However, the comments of the insider have gotten people talking and you have to wonder how Panarin feels about all the chatter.