Artemi Panarin trade grades: Kings land elite playmaker for Stanley Cup push, Rangers get underwhelming return

The Los Angeles Kings have acquired star winger Artemi Panarin from the New York Rangers in a blockbuster deal, the team announced on Wednesday. The trade speculation around Panarin picked up when the Rangers made him a healthy scratch for trade-related reasons ahead of their Jan. 28 game against the New York Islanders, and the Russian playmaker is now on the move.

In exchange for Panarin, the Kings are sending forward prospect and former first-round pick Liam Greentree, plus a conditional third-round pick back to the Rangers. New York will also retain 50% of Panarin's $11.6 million salary as part of the deal. Immediately following the deal, the Kings announced that Panarin had signed a two-year contract extension worth $11 per season. That deal will kick in next year and run through the 2027-28 campaign.

Even at 34 years old, Panarin remains one of the NHL's premier wingers. He led the Rangers in both assists (38) and points (57), and he's put up some eye-popping numbers throughout his career. Since entering the league in 2015-16, Panarin ranks fourth in assists (606) and fifth in points (927). Just two seasons ago, Panarin finished fifth in Hart Trophy voting when he tallied 120 points and led the Rangers to the Presidents' Trophy.

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Panarin was in the final year of his contract with the Rangers, which carried a cap hit of just over $11.6 million. That was a major reason the Rangers chose to part ways with Panarin, who would have commanded significant money on his next deal and likely wants another crack at a Stanley Cup. New York, meanwhile, just announced it is entering a "retool" phase as it plays out the stretch in a disappointing 2025-26 campaign.

Now in his 11th NHL season, Panarin began his career after signing a two-year contract with the Chicago Blackhawks straight out of the KHL. In his rookie season, Panarin tallied 30 goals en route to winning the Calder Trophy. He recorded another 30-goal season in Chicago the following season before getting traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets in the summer of 2017.

Panarin played just two seasons in Columbus, but he still holds the franchise records for single-season assists (59) and points (87). He was an integral part of the 2018-19 Blue Jackets team that stunned the Presidents' Trophy winner Tampa Bay Lightning with a first-round sweep.

Just months after that series, Panarin signed a massive seven-year deal with the Rangers, and he lived up to that contract with 205 goals and 402 assists in 482 games.

Now let's look at how the Kings and Rangers each made out with this deal, which will surely reverberate throughout the NHL.

The trade

• Kings receive: F Artemi Panarin (50% retained)
• Rangers receive: Conditional third-round pick, F Liam Greentree

The grades

Los Angeles Kings

If anyone has followed along with the NHL Power Rankings, they know how much I loathe watching the Kings offense operate. Only four teams score at a lower rate than Los Angeles, and there was a serious need for more firepower at the top of the lineup. Corey Perry, at the spry age of 40, was fourth on the team in goals with 11. That was just two behind Alex Laferriere for third.

An elite defensive team, the Kings needed a player of Panarin's caliber if they were going to compete for a Stanley Cup, and now they've got him. Panarin can do a little bit of everything at a high level, from distributing the puck to trigger men on his line to scoring goals himself. Just look at what he's done in the previous two seasons.

From 2023-25, Panarin ranked sixth in goals (86) and eighth in assists (128). Even in a "down" year -- both for himself and the Rangers -- Panarin is on an 82-game pace of 29 goals and 59 assists. The Kings, meanwhile, haven't had a player top 80 points since Anze Kopitar totaled 92 in 2017-18. Panarin should also provide an excellent boost to the 29th-ranked Los Angeles power play. Since Panarin entered the league in 2015-16, only five players have put up more points than him (265) on the man advantage.

What Kings coach Jim Hiller cannot do in this situation is try to hammer a square peg into a round hole. While Panarin is a much better defender than he gets credit for, Hiller can't eliminate the winger's offensive creativity for the sake of making him play a rigid defensive structure. If anything, Hiller should put Panarin on a line with Quinton Byfield and Adrian Kempe and give them the freedom to take some risks. Byfield can be the retriever, Panarin the facilitator and Kempe the shooter.

When it comes to acquisition cost, this was a slam dunk for the Kings. Not only is Panarin a great fit worth a king's ransom, but L.A. didn't even have to mortgage the future, and the team still got him at 50% of his salary. Because of Panarin's no-movement clause, the Kings received an elite forward for a conditional third-round pick and a very good -- though maybe not elite -- prospect. The two-year extension at an AAV of $11 million is also a very easy pill to swallow because it's hard to see Panarin falling off a cliff between now and the end of that deal. This was great work by general manager Ken Holland. Grade: A+

New York Rangers

Look, Rangers general manager Chris Drury was in a tough spot here. Panarin had full control of his destination, and that made it nearly impossible for the Rangers to recoup anything resembling fair value. To be clear, that's not any knock on Panarin. His play prior to the summer of 2019 warranted a big deal with trade protection, and Panarin more than held up his end of the bargain throughout his seven seasons in New York. That's just the risk teams run when they hand out a clause like that.

Greentree is easily the most interesting part of this return. The No. 26 overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, Greentree is a massive winger who's shown some high-end offensive ability at the junior level. Last season, he ranked third in the OHL with 119 points in 64 games before posting 24 points in 11 playoff games. Greentree has come back to Earth a bit in 2025-26 with 45 points in 34 games, but he was still ranked as the Kings' top prospect by The Athletic.

The conditional third-round pick is pretty underwhelming -- even if it can become a second-round pick should the Kings win a playoff round. Even with Panarin holding all the leverage, the Rangers couldn't squeeze a guaranteed first- or second-round pick out of the Kings? It's practically unheard of for a player like Panarin not to command a first-round pick in return, even in these specific circumstances.

Panarin was New York's best chance to really kickstart a rebuild, but now the team will need to swing a few more deals to really restock the cupboard. They have the players to do that, but it's disappointing the Rangers' biggest superstar couldn't garner a haul on his own. Drury avoids flunking because it's obvious Panarin held firm to his trade protection. Grade: D+