The Friday Four is a collection of thoughts and information on some intriguing player storylines from early in the season. On deck this week:
• Panarin’s torrid start to the season
• Avs not deep enough to overcome Georgiev’s struggles
• Malkin turning back the clock
• Lundell in the most underrated player conversation
Artemi Panarin, New York Rangers
In almost any other season, scoring 120 points would put you in a position to win the Hart Trophy. Or at least be a finalist. But not for Artemi Panarin in 2023-24.
Panarin’s impressive campaign was overshadowed by Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon and Nikita Kucherov, who, incredibly enough, all finished well ahead of him in the scoring race. Oh, and let’s not forget about Auston Matthews almost scoring 70 goals. Between 2006-07 and 2022-23, only four times did someone record 120 points or more, making it all the more improbable that what Panarin accomplished didn’t even get him a nomination for the Most Valuable Player.
That’s sort of been the story of Panarin’s career. A phenomenal player stuck in an era with the likes of McDavid, MacKinnon, Kucherov, Matthews, Leon Draisaitl, Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby. Panarin maybe isn’t fully appreciated for how good he is because there are a handful of players who are just a little bit better. His place in the league pecking order of talented players is clear, though it gets a little murkier when it comes to his own team.
The New York Rangers are embroiled in a bit of a stalemate regarding a contract extension for Igor Shesterkin, with rumours that the star goalie wants to be the highest-paid player on the team. That would mean leapfrogging Panarin and going from $5.6 million to more than $11.6 million, obliterating the current mark for the highest-paid goalie in the league. There’s no question Shesterkin has earned a hefty raise, but where it gets tricky is comparing his value to Panarin.
Shesterkin’s numbers have been stellar throughout his career and he’s even elevated them in the playoffs, guiding the Rangers to a pair of long playoff runs. Panarin, on the other hand, hasn’t been as strong in the spring as he’s been in the regular season. He’s averaging 1.2 points per game during his career, but that number drops to 0.8 in the playoffs. So, given how important goaltending is in the playoffs and how prolific Shesterkin has been, you could see why he would make the case that he should be the team’s highest-paid player.
Still, it’s fair to ask the question of where would the Rangers be without Panarin? In February 2018, New York released “The Letter,” indicating to the fans that a rebuild and some tough times were on the way. A little more than a year later, though, Panarin signed with the Rangers in free agency, changing the entire trajectory of the franchise. The pain of a rebuild was minimal, and New York quickly re-tooled around Panarin. In short order, they were one of the league’s elite teams once again.
Shesterkin became the starter a year after Panarin arrived, so of course he deserves his fair share of credit for where the Rangers are today. However, without Panarin choosing them in free agency, it’s possible New York would just now be digging themselves out of a long and miserable rebuild.
Panarin has also done a great job of elevating his teammates. Vincent Trocheck has taken his game to another level since uniting with Panarin and is now a bona fide No. 1 centre. There’s also Alexis Lafreniere, who some were worried could be a bust after he failed to reach 40 points in his first three seasons. Now, Lafreniere looks like he has the makings of a 35-40 goal scorer next to Panarin and is a big part of the Rangers’ future.
As Shesterkin’s contract talks dominated the headlines in New York to start the season, Panarin has gone about his business. He’s recorded 11 points in four games so far, which is good enough to tie him for the league lead. It’s still early, but Panarin appears to be on his way to being a dark horse candidate for the Hart once again.
It remains to be seen what Shesterkin’s next deal will look like, though it’s hard to argue he shouldn’t be the highest-paid goalie in the league by a significant margin. The Rangers will have to decide if he’s worth more than Panarin and how that will impact their cap situation. It’s a tough decision and a difficult negotiation, but ultimately a problem that 31 other teams would love to have.
Alexandar Georgiev, Colorado Avalanche
Jared Bednar seems like a loyal guy, but maybe too loyal where Alexandar Georgiev is concerned.
The Colorado Avalanche head coach has stuck with Georgiev through a handful of dreadful starts this season and an .802 save percentage. He also stuck by him after Georgiev’s numbers cratered last season. Bednar seems almost stubborn to a fault at this point when it comes to Georgiev and doesn’t appear willing to give anyone else a shot.
Colorado does know a thing or two about overcoming bad goaltending. When the Avalanche won the Cup in 2022, Darcy Kuemper and Pavel Francouz combined for a .903 save percentage during the post-season. That was easily the worst number in the salary cap era, and you’d have to go all the way back to the 1991-92 Pittsburgh Penguins to find a team that won the Cup with the same playoff save percentage. You need to go even further back, to the 1987-88 Edmonton Oilers, to find a team that won a championship with a worse save percentage than that.
That was a different Avalanche team, though. Nazem Kadri and Bowen Byram are no longer around, while Gabriel Landeskog, Devon Toews and Artturi Lehkonen are sidelined with injuries. It remains to be seen if Valeri Nichushkin will return in November. There’s actually an argument to be made that the Avs may have the thinnest bottom nine in the league at the moment. Simply put, Colorado isn’t good enough to overcome bad goaltending any longer.
To be fair to Bednar, Colorado isn’t exactly brimming with a lot of good options between the pipes outside of Georgiev. Justus Annunen, a promising albeit inexperienced prospect, hasn’t played well when called upon in relief of Georgiev this season. Kaapo Kahkonen was recently claimed off waivers, though he owns a sub-.900 save percentage for his career, and the move is probably more of a Hail Mary than anything else.
Part of the problem is Colorado also has to do a better job of helping out Georgiev. By their own admission, the team hasn’t played near its capabilities to start the season, and Cale Makar placed most of the blame on himself earlier this week when speaking to reporters following a loss to the New York Islanders.
“Three of their six goals, four of their six goals, directly my fault. So that’s just how it goes. Some really stupid childish mistakes and those things you gotta learn from, but I gotta be better for the guys. A lot of that one’s on me.”
Bednar seems steadfast in his belief that Georgiev needs to play through his struggles, but some rest could help. He’s started every game this season and played more than 60 in each of the last two campaigns after serving primarily as a backup prior to that. Georgiev hadn’t appeared in more than 34 games in a season before joining the Avs. A reset may do him a world of good. Just ask Ilya Samsonov, who lost his game for a stretch last year with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was given a couple of weeks off to find his game with the goaltending coaching staff and bounced back with a solid second half of the season.
Maybe things won’t get much better with Annunen or Kahkonen, but they have to try something — even if that means exploring the trade market. Colorado is still winless and may be digging themselves into a hole they can’t get out of.
Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh Penguins
If you woke up Thursday morning and had a peak at the NHL scoring leaders, you probably wondered what year it was.
Evgeni Malkin sat atop the league-scoring race with a surge of 11 points in five games. It’s the first time in more than a decade Malkin has ranked No. 1 in league scoring at any point, making the 38-year-old one of the most surprising storylines in the early part of the season.
Despite his age, the Pens may need Malkin now more than ever. For better or worse, Pittsburgh is committed and locked into this core, and its window is rapidly closing. The only reason it’s still open a crack is that Crosby has continued to play at an elite level, but even that hasn’t been enough to get the team to the playoffs in the past two seasons. Pittsburgh doesn’t have the cap space to add anyone significant to help, there isn’t an impact prospect or high draft pick on the way and Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson are declining on the back end. If there is one more playoff run left for this core, they need Malkin to find another gear.
It’s not that Malkin dropped off tremendously a year ago, but 67 points isn’t going to cut it if the Pens still have post-season aspirations. Malkin doesn’t necessarily have to score at the pace he’s on now, though he probably has to get North of 80 points for Pittsburgh to make some real noise in the East. That won’t be easy at his age.
Still, if you’re a Pens fan looking at the glass half full, Malkin appears to have unusually good durability for a player in the late stages of his career. He hasn’t missed a game for more than two years and still averages well over 18 minutes a night. If Pittsburgh plans to lean on Malkin even more this season, he should be able to handle it. He’ll at least be counted on to anchor a second line that features Michael Bunting and the inconsistent Rickard Rakell. Bunting had a lot of success with Malkin a year ago and can be very effective alongside good players, while Rakell has three goals in his first five games. If Malkin can build off his strong start, there’s a chance this line could be a formidable one in 2024-25.
This week was also full of milestones for the Penguins, with Malkin reaching 500 goals and Crosby hitting 1,600 points. It really put into perspective just how good that duo has been and how long they’ve been performing at a very high level. It’s rare to see players avoid a sharp decline as they arrive at their late thirties, but Malkin and Crosby may just be the exception to the rule.
Make no mistake about it, Father Time is going to win this battle eventually. He always does. But credit Malkin for extending the fight as long as he can.
Anton Lundell, Florida Panthers
The word “underrated” gets thrown around a lot in hockey — so much so that a player can be touted as underrated so often that they almost become overrated, or at least make people tired of hearing about them. Players like Wyatt Johnston and Joel Eriksson Ek fit this bill in recent years, and now they’re household names that hockey fans really appreciate.
I could see Florida Panthers forward Anton Lundell being next on this list. His game is underappreciated, and he’s a real Swiss Army Knife who does it all for the Panthers.
It’s very difficult to win without centre depth in the playoffs and Lundell played a key part in helping Florida to its first Stanley Cup with 17 points in 24 post-season games. He is great at both ends of the ice, and with Aleksander Barkov and Sam Bennett in the top six, Lundell provided the perfect compliment to the Panthers forward group. Very few teams can match Florida’s depth at the position or have three centres they really trust.
Lundell can also move up the lineup when needed and contribute more offensively. When Barkov went down with an injury earlier this season, Lundell was bumped up and promptly scored four goals and five points in three games while averaging more than 10 faceoff wins a night. Prior to Thursday night’s games, his line with Eetu Luostarinen and Mackie Samoskevich also ranked second in the NHL in expected goals per 60 in 2024-25.
He’s on a pretty good contract, too. Lundell is locked up for five more years after this one at only a $5 million cap hit, a deal which should age very well. It also insulates Florida if they aren’t able to re-sign Bennett. I’m sure that in a perfect world, the Panthers would like to bring Bennett back, but his play in the post-season could end up pricing him out of the Sunshine State.
Good teams keep winning by developing a younger and cheaper option to replace a departing asset they can no longer afford, and Lundell has more than proved he’s ready for a promotion if called upon.
