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.