On August 29, 2008, a trade between Tampa Bay and Ottawa took place in the NHL. The promising Slovak defender Andrej Meszároš was headed to Tampa in exchange for:
- Czech defender Filip Kuba, who played hundreds of games in the league;
- striker Alexander Picard, who tried to get rid of the reputation of a player on the edge of the NHL and AHL;
- and a choice in the 1st round of the draft.
On February 28, 2014, Buffalo and St. Louis. Slovakian goalkeeper Jaroslav Halák, Chris Stewart, still-playing William Carrier and a selection in the 1st round of the strong 2015 draft and in the 3rd round of the 2016 draft went to Buffalo. For all that, St. Louis received:
- goalkeeper Ryan Miller, who lasted only a few months at the club;
- and forward Steve Ott, who finally collected only 17 points in 122 games.
On April 12, 2021, Washington acquired forward Anthony Mantha. At the end of the transfer window, however, he surprised us with what he was willing to give up for him:
- Jakub Vrána and Richard Pánik, problematic but undoubtedly talented attackers;
- and a 1st and 2nd round draft pick.
On February 26, 2023, Tampa Bay signed Tanner Jeannot, one of the toughest players in the league, as a backup for the playoffs. She sent to Nashville for him:
- defense attorney Cal Foote, who later stood trial in a high-profile unproven gang-rape case;
- and five additional draft picks in the first through fifth rounds of the draft.
In contrast to these exchanges, Artemij Panarin was traded on February 4, 2026.
ARTEMI PANARIN HAS BEEN TRADED TO THE @LAKings‼️
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— NHL (@NHL) February 4, 2026
Still a league star, still the New York Rangers’ most important forward.
But Los Angeles only hired him for Liam Greentree, a first-round pick in 2024 playing in the junior WHL, and a conditional pick in the 3rd round of this year’s draft (if they win the series in the playoffs this year, he will turn into a second-rounder, and if they win the second, they will throw him a choice in the 4th round of the 2028 draft). In addition, the Rangers retained half of his salary.
Panarin cost – in some cases a lot – less than the players named before him, who were of good quality, but far from his quality.
We are talking about Panarin:
- the best player in Rangers history with an average of 1.26 points per game;
- to the player who was the team’s most productive player in each season in New York;
- about one of six active players to score 120 points in one season;
- about the striker who twice in 6 and a half years at Rangers finished among the top five in the voting for the most valuable player of the league.
The disparity is too great to ignore.
However, such trades sometimes happen in the NHL. The question that New York Rangers fans ask themselves is whether Panarin’s trade had to be among such “unfair” ones.
He was preceded by an interview
Less than three weeks before the exchange, the club’s general manager Chris Drury announced statementin which he addressed the fans. He said that he understands their disappointment with the performance of the team, currently the worst in the East, and feels it himself.
He has publicly announced that he will be embarking on a rebuild of the lineup – not a complete rebuild aka rebuildubut the so-called retoolu. “This may mean that we say goodbye to players who have brought us great experiences in recent years,” he added.
We will talk about how it can affect the Slovak hockey player Adam Sýkora at the end of the text.
Drury first called his biggest offensive ace, Artemij Panarin, for an interview. He told him that
