As things currently stand, NHL free agency in 2026 is shaping up to deliver some fireworks.
The best player on the planet, Connor McDavid, still being unsigned is the number one reason for that, though we should all know by now that it doesn’t stop there.
Kirill Kaprizov, Jack Eichel, and Kyle Connor are just a few of the other marquee players we might see hit the open market; however, many are overlooking a guy with the fourth-most points of anyone in the league since 2020-21: Artemi Panarin.
That could be attributed to his age, as he’s approaching his mid-thirties, but the production speaks for itself, and the Bread Man has shown no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
The Rangers will certainly want to keep their superstar winger, though they’re walking a bit of a tightrope trying to finalize a new deal, which Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman revealed during the latest edition of “32 Thoughts: The Podcast.”
“Now, Panarin is up, and Anze Kopitar, who just announced his retirement, he signed 10 years ago an eight-year deal with an average annual salary of $10 million a year. At the end of that deal, the LA Kings went to him and said, ‘We need you to take a little bit less; it’ll really help us win,’ and Kopitar did that at 2 times 7. And I understand at some point this offseason the Rangers had that kind of a conceptual discussion with Panarin. Is there a way you could do for the Rangers what Kopitar did for the Kings? And obviously at this point in time it hasn’t happened. So I don’t know where that’s going to go. I don’t know if that’s going to be a possibility. But I do know that the two sides had the conversation, and obviously at this point Panarin’s unsigned,” Friedman said.
Switch for this week only. We’re in spectacular Charlottetown, PEI for a @Sportsnet NHL sponsor summit and did a live 32 Thoughts podcast yesterday
News, information, analysis and lots of Thoughtline. Links to your preferred platform, here: https://t.co/io7Mr1RceU
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) September 25, 2025
The 33-year-old is about to enter the final season of the seven-year, $81,499,999 contract he signed to join the Rangers as a UFA back in 2019.
New York wants to keep its options open
While the New York Rangers should undoubtedly want to re-sign Artemi Panarin, it is smart for them not to commit to anything big with the potential names that could become available next summer.
The Rangers are always tight to the salary cap and willing to spend, so if a Connor McDavid or Kirill Kaprizov is out there, they want to ensure that they’ll be able to be big players in those sweepstakes.
One thing to keep an eye on is Panarin’s relationship with fellow countryman Kaprizov and whether he could lure the Minnesota Wild superstar to join him in the Big Apple.
It’s going to be fascinating to see how it all plays out, and how New York fares in 2025-26 will play a huge factor in that.