![]() There’s little question that he’s not just the best free-agent signing in franchise history he’s among the best such acquisitions in New York sports history. Apparently invigorated by playing on the big stage, he’s piled up 341 points in 268 games in a Blueshirt, with 90-plus point seasons in the three mostly full seasons he’s played with the Rangers (the COVID-19 pandemic altering the lengths of the 2019-21 seasons). Panarin has hardly failed to live up to the Rangers’ expectations, and then some. Rangers forward Artemi Panarin ( Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers) Yet while no one viewed that signing at the time as the beginning of the Rangers’ rebuild moving in a different direction, that is indeed what transpired beginning four summers ago – a chain of events that has left the Blueshirts in the uncertain situation they find themselves today. The summer of 2019 also brought another major personnel score, this one via free agency. Everything appeared to be on track, pleasing a fan base that watched with anticipation as their team looked to be constructing an outfit capable of delivering the kind of sustained contention that the previous core of players had for a decade. With its youthful talent base growing through the methodical approach the organization had promised to follow, the Rangers eyed a 2019 offseason that guaranteed them one of the two consensus top prospects in the draft, and they also held a pair of second-round selections to further stock the organizational cupboard. Later that month, Gorton pulled off what turned out to be a lopsided deal with the Carolina Hurricanes for the rights to promising young defenseman Adam Fox, who had made clear that he was only interested in signing with the Rangers, the team he had grown up rooting for on Long Island. ![]() ![]() Former team president John Davidson and ex-general manager Jeff Gorton oversaw the early stages of of the Rangers’ rebuild (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) ![]()
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