2. New York Rangers
The New York Rangers are only a year into their rebuild, but general manager Jeff Gorton is in an excellent position to try and make at least one splash that can help his team compete again very soon.
Last August, Aaron Portzline of The Athletic (subscription required), reported that the Rangers are Panarin’s “desired destination.” That was 10 months ago, but there aren’t any indications that he wouldn’t want to sign with the Rangers if they came calling.
New York could offer Panarin the chance to play in a huge market and with about $19 million in projected cap space, they can easily meet his contract demands. Gorton has few long-term contract commitments, and he can easily shed more salary in order to up his offer to Panarin.
With the No. 2 pick in this year’s draft, the Rangers are guaranteed either Jack Hughes or Kaapo Kakko — both of whom promise to make major impacts right away. The Rangers also landed stud Russian winger Vitali Kravtsov in last year’s draft, so the future will be arriving here in such short time.
So why shouldn’t Gorton just go for it and try to accelerate this rebuild while he has the chance? The Rangers have stockpiled on draft picks and have one of the deepest prospect pools in hockey. Gorton has plenty of house money to play with, and superstars like Panarin don’t hit free agency very often.
And who knows? Maybe Panarin would even take a bit of a discount to play in New York.