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NHL NHL Regular Season Will both Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafrenière be traded before the deadline? Sam Navarro / Imagn Images LOS ANGELES — As we’ll repeat time and time again until Artemi Panarin eventually changes teams, the Rangers’ star has control over his situation. It doesn’t matter how good a deal the Rangers find involving him. If the winger doesn’t like the destination, he can nix it with his no-movement clause. Advertisement Panarin has not disclosed his desires regarding potential trade destinations. That potentially won’t change until a deal materializes. One element to monitor is whether he will seek an extension with a new team in conjunction with a trade. People around the league have speculated that could be his preference, though Panarin or his camp have not given an indication one way or the other. If the 34-year-old Panarin signs an extension as part of a trade, he will not have to move twice and will have immediate clarity on his future. It could boost the Rangers’ return, too. New York would not be trading a rental player but instead one with team control. Of course, if Panarin has only one destination in mind, the package the Rangers get back could be limited, regardless of whether an extension is in place. President and general manager Chris Drury, who has not spoken to reporters since releasing a letter announcing the Rangers’ retool last week, would have minimal leverage in that circumstance. Panarin’s 10-game point streak ended Tuesday against the Kings. His days with the team are numbered, but his production rate has improved after a slow start. He’s up to 1. 12 points per game (56 points in 50 games), a slight increase from his 1. 11 rate (89 in 80) in 2024-25. His goal-scoring rate has dipped. He had 37 last season, but this year he has only 19. His shooting percentage (12. 4 percent) is at its lowest since 2021-22. Alexis Lafrenière had one of his best games of the season in the Winter Classic. Since then, he has five points in eight games and is minus-seven. The 2020 No. 1 pick is in the first year of a seven-year, $7. 45 million average annual value extension, but that doesn’t make him safe from a potential trade. His contract has no trade protection until summer 2027, when an eight-team no-trade list goes into effect. Advertisement Trading Lafrenière would mean the organization conceding defeat on another top-10 pick. The team has already traded away Kaapo Kakko (No. 2 in 2019), Vitali Kravtsov (No. 9 in 2018) and Lias Andersson (No. 7 in 2017), and neither Kravtsov nor Andersson is still in the NHL. If Drury were to trade Lafrenière, it would be imperative for him to get young talent back. The Rangers could seek a deal similar to the Josh Norris-Dylan Cozens swap at last year’s deadline that gave both players a fresh start. Or he could opt to keep Lafrenière rather than trading him while his value is arguably at the lowest of his career. Asked if he wants to stay through the team’s stated retool period, Lafrenière said, “Of course. I’m here and I’ll give my 100 percent. I think we have a good group. ” But he knows that the team hasn’t had a successful season. And when that happens, changes come. “It always sucks losing guys, teammates, friends, but that’s the business, ” he said. “We’ll see what happens. All we can do is really just play hockey and try to win games. ” Drury spoke to the team on Friday to inform players of the intention to retool, and he met one-on-one with members of the leadership group. Lafrenière said Monday that Drury has not spoken with him individually about his future since the letter. Sam Carrick, the Rangers’ fourth-line center, is another name to watch as the deadline nears. He could provide a contending club with a depth option, but the acquiring team would have to be comfortable with him having another year of term. The 33-year-old has a $1 million AAV deal through the 2026-27 season. “Obviously it’s not easy, ” he said. “I signed here hoping to finish my contract here. Having a family and stuff makes things a little bit more difficult if change is coming. … I don’t know what’ll happen, obviously, but if anything does happen, you just roll with the punches. ” Advertisement Jonny Brodzinski and Taylor Raddysh, who have been on the fourth line with Carrick of late, are other depth forward trade candidates, though it’s difficult to see either bringing back more than a late-round draft pick. Raddysh has another year at $1. 5 million AAV, and Brodzinski is a pending unrestricted free agent. C oach Mike Sullivan benched Brodzinski for the final 27: 23 of Tuesday’s game after the forward was on the ice for two Kings’ goals. He played only 5: 43 in the game: the second-lowest ice time total of his 245-game career. Last July, when goalie Spencer Martin signed a two-year deal with CSKA Moscow in the KHL, an eventual NHL return — let alone an imminent one — was far from a guarantee. Half a season later, he’s back in the U. S. and has appeared in four games for the Rangers this season. “Starting the year in the KHL, it was a long way from a chance like this, ” the 30-year-old said. Drafted by Colorado in 2013, Martin has appeared in games for the Avalanche, Canucks, Blue Jackets, Hurricanes and now the Rangers, as well as six AHL teams. He’s never played in more than 29 games in a season and has a career . 881 save percentage. When weighing his future as a free agent last summer, Martin viewed the KHL as a chance to set his family up well financially, as well as experience something different. “Once I got there, I realized how much I missed this type of (NHL) opportunity and that excitement, ” he said recently. The marriage didn’t work well for either side. Martin had a . 905 save percentage in 14 games, but his 5-6-2 record wasn’t enough to satisfy a CSKA team that Martin said expects to win every game. CSKA explored trading Martin before ultimately deciding to buy him out in the midst of the club’s disappointing start. Advertisement After the buyout, Martin found himself in a position to seek another opportunity back in North America. The Rangers had interest in him in the summer of 2025, he said, and that interest picked back up around the time Martin was leaving Russia. On Nov. 12, Drury signed Martin to a two-year, $775, 000 AAV deal. An injury to Jonathan Quick earned him a brief call-up earlier this season, and he’s been up again since starter Igor Shesterkin went down Jan. 5 with a lower-body injury. Martin has made a pair of starts with the Rangers, going 1-1-0. He has an . 868 save percentage in those two starts, but picked up his first win Saturday against Philadelphia. His teammates awarded him with the player of the game Broadway hat after the game. “I have a lot bigger goals to prove I can help here, ” he said. “But it still feels pretty cool just knowing how rare this opportunity is after starting in Russia. ” Peter Baugh is a staff writer for The Athletic NHL based in New York. He has previously been published in the Columbia Missourian, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kansas City Star, Politico and the Washington Post. A St. Louis native, Peter graduated from the University of Missouri and previously covered the Missouri Tigers and the Colorado Avalanche for The Athletic. Follow Peter on Twitter @Peter_Baugh