Insider names 4 teams as likely trade destinations for Artemi Panarin.

It sounds like there is a growing sense that New York Rangers star forward Artemi Panarin may not finish the season on his current team.

On Monday, National Hockey League insider Elliotte Friedman was asked about the possibility of a Panarin trade and he opened by pointing to some comments that Panarin himself recently made to reporters about his future.

"They were asking about his future and all this speculation and he was pretty blunt about it and said basically stop listening to people who don't make decisions," said Friedman on the 32 Thoughts podcast. "'I'm the one with the contract, I'm the one who has approval over my future, I will decide, it will be my way.'"

The insider also revealed that the Rangers have already approached Panarin with a contract offer, pointing to a deal similar to the one recently signed by Los Angeles Kings star forward Anze Kopitar, but added that the offer was rejected by Panarin and his camp.

"We do know the Rangers went to him before the year and talked to him about a Kopitar-style contract and obviously he didn't have much interest in that," revealed Friedman.

Although Panarin controls his own destiny, Friedman points out that the Rangers are likely to approach Panarin to see if there isn't some way to work out a trade deal here.

"The one thing the Rangers can do here is, if they are not gonna sign him to what he wants and there isn't a path, then you have to gingerly go to him and his representatives and say 'Can we work with you on this?'"

The insider also revealed the names of 4 teams that he believes could be potential destinations for Panarin, all 4 of which already have Russian players on their roster.

"I wonder about a team like Florida, you wonder about a team like Washington, you think about places where Russian players might wanna go, since the beginning of the year we have been wondering about Minnesota because [Kirill] Kaprizov is there and they are represented by the same agent," said Friedman. "The other team I really wonder about is Colorado... could you imagine Panarin on that team and what it might look like?"

Will the Rangers pull the trigger now that they are 6 points out of a playoff spot more than halfway through the season? And if so where do you see Panarin ending up? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.