Johnny Gaudreau & Artemi Panarin: Similar Paths to Success?

Coming off their second straight season with less than 80 points and a bottom two finish in the Metropolitan Division, all signs pointed towards a full-scale rebuild for the New York Rangers.

With no go-to goal scorer on the roster, and a handful of young talent to develop, the Rangers decided to make a massive splash by signing former Columbus Blue Jackets forward Artemi Panarin to a seven-year, $81.5 million deal during the 2019 off-season.

A move like this certainly puzzled a lot of members in the media and the fanbase as the team was full of youth and headed towards a rebuild. Signing one of the league’s most electric scorers to a long-term and expensive contract was not the traditional way of going about things.

However, the Rangers realized that Panarin was the missing piece this team needed to take the next jump forward into contention.

The team already was getting production from young players like Mika Zibanejad and Ryan Strome while also having young prospects like Adam Fox and Filip Chytil plus goaltenders Igor Shesterkin and Alexander Georgiev waiting to take the next step in the NHL.

The roster was there, now they just needed the leader and the number one goal-scoring option.

Insert Artemi Panarin as that guy and the growth and expectation of the team would heighten. Panarin would go on to have a career year in his first season in New York, totaling career-highs in goals, assists, and points.

But Panarin’s impact was not just seen in his own production, but in others around him. In the 2019-2020 season, both Ryan Strome and Mika Zibanejad totaled career-highs in points while playing alongside Panarin.

The team still had holes on the roster and had some consistency issues, but the pieces were now in place for the Rangers to significantly take the next step forward.

Fast forward to the 2021-2022 season in the post-COVID era of the NHL, and the Rangers have a season where they totaled 110 points and finished second in the Metropolitan Division, while also making it to the Eastern Conference Finals and taking the Tampa Bay Lightning to six games.

The Rangers took a team that was certainly heading towards a rebuild, added a lethal goal scorer in Panarin, and like Jesse Blake stated “expedited their rebuild” into one of the best teams in hockey within three seasons.

So how does the Johnny Gaudreau signing in Columbus correlate with that Rangers team in 2018-2019? Let’s take a closer look.

Similar to the Rangers when they signed Panarin, the Blue Jackets are coming off a few seasons of missing the playoffs and having some pretty rough off-seasons.

Since 2019, the team has lost Artemi Panarin, Sergei Bobrovsky, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Cam Atkinson, and Seth Jones all via trade or free agency.

They have been widely regarded by many as the team that cannot ever get or retain top-level talent, and while the Rangers didn’t necessarily lose that many key pieces, just like the Jackets, they lacked superstar power.

For Columbus, that all changed this past week when Johnny Gaudreau decided to sign with the team. But how does this relate to the Rangers signing Panarin?

Let’s take a look at the Blue Jackets right now and compare the roster construction to the Rangers heading into the 2019 regular season before they signed Panarin.

The Rangers, as stated on the previous slide, had a few players in their early-mid 20s that were already good NHL players in Zibanejad and Strome who just needed a number one option and facilitator to maximize their potential.

The Blue Jackets also have that in Oliver Bjorkstrand and Patrik Laine. Bjorkstrand has developed into a solid 40-50 point player the last two seasons and could benefit from playing with Johnny Gaudreau to help set him up for opportunities.

Laine, on the other hand, has showcased he has superstar potential but could also benefit from having a go-to top-20 player in the league alongside him.

The Blue Jackets also have Zach Werenski on the back end who is locked up long-term and will be the leader of the blue line for many seasons to come, similarly to how the Rangers view Adam Fox.

Both Fox and Werenski are 24 years of age and are locked up under contract with their respective teams until their age 31 seasons.

The one question many asked themselves with both the Panarin and Gaudreau signings was the state of the roster.

When Panarin signed with the Rangers the roster still was not viewed as competitive or playoff material, and now the same questions are being asked with Gaudreau going to Columbus. The two signings are similar in this regard as well.

Just like the Rangers in 2019, the Jackets are probably a year or two away from being serious playoff threats in the Eastern Conference, but they have the prospect pool that will help shape the roster and core of this team up sooner than later.

While New York had Alexis Lafreniere, Kaapo Kakko, Filip Chytil, K’Andre Miller, and Ryan Lindgren all in their prospect pool ready to take the next step at the NHL level, the Blue Jackets also have several top-tier prospects that will be playing significant NHL minutes as early as this upcoming season.

Cole Sillinger and Kent Johnson, both first-round picks in the 2021 NHL Draft,  will surely be full-time NHL players this season, with there being a real possibility that Sillinger is centering the top line with Gaudreau and Laine by the mid-season point.

The Blue Jackets also had two first-round picks in this year’s draft that turned into defensemen David Jiricek and Denton Mateychuk, both of whom could be NHL players at the start of next season to help sure up the blue line.

The Blue Jackets might not have all the pieces to be significant contenders this season, but adding a player like Gaudreau while the opportunity was there to bring him in, knowing the prospects that are on their way up to the NHL, was the right decision.

We very well could see the Columbus Blue Jackets take that next step a lot sooner than anticipated, just like the Rangers did this past season.