The New York Rangers are not strangers to free agency and big name contracts. They’ve always been big players whenever high profile free agents are to be had. It felt like old times when the word came down that Artemi Panarin had agreed to continue his career in New York, but at the same time it felt a little different. Here are five reason why:
Reason # 1 – He took less money
This has happened before, most recently with Kevin Shattenkirk, but in this case he turned down a lot of money. The word is that Columbus offered him a seven-year contract with an annual AAV of $12 million or even more.