The Olympic break has begun, but one last big move took place in the NHL before the trade freeze for the games. On Wednesday the New York Rangers traded star forward Artemi Panarin to the Los Angeles Kings in a move designed to solidify the Kings’ playoff push in the back end of the season. Panarin subsequently signed a two-year, $22M contract extension ($11M AAV), which will keep the wing until the end of the 2026-27 season.

In exchange the Rangers received forward prospect Liam Greentree, and a conditional third round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, which will become a second round pick if the Kings win a playoff round, as well as a conditional fourth round pick which hinges on the Kings winning two playoffs series this season.

Los Angeles Kings analysis and grade

There has been dire need for Los Angeles to find a legitimate, point-per-game superstar to try and put together a playoff run this season. Truth be told, it’s been a down year for the Kings who projected to be much better on paper than they’ve been on the ice.

Panarin is a legitimate star who can get 40-year-old Corey Perry off the top line. Perry has been good in short bursts, but injured far too much to be a consistent difference maker. Panarin will solidify that top line alongside Alex Laferriere and Adrian Kempe to form a unit capable of winning games for Los Angeles and getting them into the playoffs.

The biggest question mark about this deal is what the expectations are for the Kings. This team is still woefully lacking at center, have no great prospects at the position, and just gave away the No. 1 prospect in their system for a few years of Artemi Panarin — who will be 37-years-old at the end of this deal.

If your goal as an organization is being content with getting bounced early in the playoffs, then this is a great deal — it will achieve precisely that. I’m not buying for a second that Panarin is the missing piece to put together a Stanley Cup run, especially in the West up against the likes of the Avs, Wild, and Stars.

The saving grace is that the Kings managed to pull off this deal without including a 1st round pick, which was being rumored as part of the asking price for Panarin, along with a top prospect.

New York Rangers analysis and grade

For the life of me I can’t fathom why the Rangers felt the need to rush the deal and pull the trigger on a Panarin trade before the Olympics. With Panarin being a Russian national he won’t be in Milano Cortina for the games, eliminating any risk of injury — and after the games teams will be feeling froggy to make big trades, especially if a core player gets injured.

I really like Liam Greentree as a prospect. There’s potential for him to develop into a Top 6 forward on the Rangers, but he’s utterly untested. One would assume the Rangers would have at least asked for a NHL-tested player and a first round pick to get this done, making the deal reek of settling.

This is designed to turbo-charge the Rangers tank and rebuild, but this just wasn’t a smart deal. In the course of a week we’ve seen talks of a Panarin deal shrink from landing a highly-valued young player like Jackson Blake (CAR) and a first rounder, to now accepting much, much less.

Bad timing. Mediocre return. The Kings ongoing struggles will continue until there’s a shakeup in the front office — starting with Chris Drury.