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Artemi Panarin trade grades for Kings, Rangers

Originally posted on NHL on ClutchPoints | Last updated Feb 4, 2026 7:45 PM ET

The Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers came together on a blockbuster trade right before the NHL’s roster freeze on Wednesday. Star winger Artemi Panarin is heading out West after spending six and a half seasons on Broadway. New York has kicked off its rebuilding process, while the Kings look to go for it in Anze Kopitar’s final season.

The Kings have sought to land a big fish for some time. Panarin may be the biggest fish on the trade market this season. He is a legitimate point-per-game player even in the latter stages of his career. Now, he has a chance to chase an elusive Stanley Cup.

How does this trade shake out for the Kings? Did the Rangers get enough for their star winger? It’s time for ClutchPoints to present its Artemi Panarin trade grades.

Full Artemi Panarin trade

The Los Angeles Kings have acquired Artemi Panarin from the New York Rangers. In exchange, the Rangers have received prospect forward Liam Greentree and a conditional 2026 third-round pick. New York receives the better of Los Angeles and Dallas’s third-round picks.

If Los Angeles wins a playoff series, this pick is upgraded to a second-round pick. If they advance to the Western Conference Finals, the Rangers get an additional 2028 fourth-round pick. New York retained 50% of Panarin’s salary as part of this deal.

As part of this trade, Panarin signed a two-year contract extension for Los Angeles. This carries a cap hit of $11 million per season. He did not receive any trade or movement protections in this new contract.

Kings going all in for Stanley Cup

The Kings have known for months that Anze Kopitar was retiring at the end of this season. They also know they have hit a huge wall in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. In each of the last four seasons, Los Angeles has been eliminated in the first round by Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers.

Kopitar certainly doesn’t need a Cup, as he won two of them in the early-to-mid 2010s. However, it would be egregious mismanagement on the part of general manager Ken Holland if he didn’t push his chips to the center of the table.

With this trade, he did exactly that. And he didn’t give up much of anything to do so, either. Liam Greentree is a promising prospect who has a chance to play top-six minutes in the NHL. But he is a prospect Los Angeles can part with if they are getting a player like Panarin in return. Furthermore, they pulled this off without giving up a guaranteed second or first-round pick

Los Angeles, ideally, will give up a second-round pick in this deal. But if they don’t, they can still win a Stanley Cup with Panarin on the roster. This sort of move is why Holland is a Hockey Hall of Famer.

Rangers settle for uninspiring return

Image credit: ClutchPoints

The New York Rangers did not have much leverage in these negotiations. General manager Chris Drury publicly stated the team is entering a retooling phase. And it wasn’t long after his letter to fans that we learned the team was not going to offer Panarin an extension.

Panarin’s days with the Rangers were numbered, and everyone knew it. Factor that in with the fact that the star winger had a full no-movement clause, and New York had little room to truly work with. If Panarin didn’t want to go somewhere, he wasn’t going to go there.

Still, this trade is not a good look for New York. As mentioned, Liam Greentree is a very good prospect. He was a first-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft. And his offensive instincts could make him a dangerous player at the next level. At the same time, there are legitimate concerns, especially around his work ethic, that could limit his ceiling.

Outside of this, the Rangers could end up with two picks from this. They could end up with one early and one mid-round pick. Or they could end up with one third-round pick, and that’s all she wrote. It’s an uninspiring amount of draft capital, especially for a player of Panarin’s caliber.

Most confounding in all of this is that they got this return while retaining half of the cap hit. Retaining salary, in theory, is supposed to maximize the return a team gets for a player. If this is the best the Rangers could do, that’s a bad look on the part of Drury and New York’s front office.

At the end of the day, there are positives to be taken from this. Greentree could pan out and become a star. He has the tools for this to happen. And the Rangers could also hit on these picks. Unfortunately, as things currently stand, this is an uninspiring return.

Grades and final thoughts

The Kings and Rangers are graded on the opposite end of the spectrum here. Los Angeles gets high marks, while New York gets a pretty bad grade. Los Angeles is going all in, and they still have the ability to add more after the Artemi Panarin trade. The Rangers, meanwhile, look wholly uninspiring to begin their retooling era.

Los Angeles Kings grade: A

New York Rangers grade: D-

This article first appeared on NHL on ClutchPoints and was syndicated with permission.

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