Will Artemi Panarin sign a contract extension? Burning Rangers questions for 2025-26
From a hockey perspective, the New York Rangers’ signing of Artemi Panarin as a free agent in July 2019 has gone about as well as they could have hoped.
He’s led New York in scoring each of his six seasons and ranks first in franchise history in points per game (1.28). The team has made the Eastern Conference final twice with him as its top offensive producer. He’s twice finished in the top five in Hart Trophy voting for the league’s most valuable player.
Now only one year remains on the seven-year deal, worth $11.6 million in average annual value, that brought him to New York. This leaves the Rangers at a massive crossroads. What comes next with Panarin is perhaps the team’s biggest question entering the 2025-26 season.
“He’s not going to sign if he’s not paid as a premier player,” one Western Conference executive said. “That’s what they’re going to have to decide.”
Of course, there is more to the Panarin decision than just hockey. In April, The Athletic reported that Panarin and Madison Square Garden paid financial settlements to a Rangers employee last year after she alleged that Panarin sexually assaulted her in December 2023. The Rangers did not publicly discipline Panarin, who played in every game in 2023-24 and missed only two games in 2024-25, both because of an upper-body injury.
Panarin is coming off a 37-goal, 89-point season, the second-most goals of any season in his career, but it’s his lowest rate of point production since coming to New York.
“His top game is fantastic,” said an NHL scout based in the East. “But the consistency, of course, wasn’t there, along with the rest of the team, too. Definitely doesn’t all fall on him. I haven’t seen much of a regression in terms of his overall talent.”
Evolving-Hockey projects Panarin’s next contract to come in at three years with a $10.1 million average salary. That lines up with Panarin’s projected market value for the coming years, according to colleague Dom Luszczyszyn’s model.
