Artemi Panarin Is Gonna Mess Around And Win The Hart Trophy

610 12/4/2023 5:40 PM
Icon Sportswire. Getty Images.

This offseason for Artemi Panarin was one of transformation. After an embarrassing playoff series, The Breadman knew he had to change. He had to become an alpha again. First he sawed off his curly locks and I thought it was kinda lame. Like he just went through a high school breakup or something. Need a little more than that bud. Then a story came out about Panarin getting pinched for firing a gun where he shouldn't be and I knew he wasn't fucking around. He was gonna come in hot…

 

…and he's done just that, starting off his campaign with a team-record 15-game point streak. Last night #10 continued to deliver in a major way with a hatty & 4-point game where every single one was needed to fend off the bottom-feeding Sharks and vault his team to an absurd 18-4-1 start. Through just about two months, the Blueshirts sit atop the entire league with a .804 points percentage and it's largely due to Panarin reverting to his old, dominant self we saw in his Rangers debut when he finished 3rd in the Hart voting. Except right now he'd win the damn thing. 

Who's his competition? All the Canucks and Avs players atop the scoring leaderboard cannibalize each other, whether it's being teammates (Miller/Petterson, MacKinnon/Rantanen) or playing the same position (Quinn Hughes/Makar - two blueliners aren't gonna make the cut for Hart finalists & how do you differentiate between the two?). Jack Hughes has been incredible but he's also missed 5 games while his squad sits well out of playoff position. Kucherov is piling up the points but the Bolts are also on the outside looking in and his defensive metrics are abysmal. The only other forward in the league on the ice for more even strength goals against is his running mate Brayden Point. There's no value in being the leading scorer if you're still giving up more than you get.

The only argument against Bread is Pasta. Carbs vs Carbs. I'm still giving the edge to Panarin though. While the surface stats are essentially a wash (3 & 4 in points, tied for 3rd in even-strength points), there's no doubting the Rangers winger is driving play a hell of a lot more. The only ones doing it better in terms of (let's get nerdy) even-strength relative Corsi are Crosby & Brady Tkachuk. Gotta scroll down to 60 to find Pastrnak among forwards with at least 200 minutes played. And Panarin has been just as good defensively - 10th in relative Corsi against - with Pasta once again hanging out in the 60s. Combined, Artemi is #1. That's right. No forward has had a greater positive impact while on the ice than Artemi Panarin.

The kicker? He's not running with a Marchand type of talent. No Lamborghini's on Panarin's line. Instead he's been tearing it up with two different centers (first Filip Chytil then Vincent Trocheck, aka "The Prius", after Fil's injury) & the previously underwhelming Alexis Lafreniere. Panarin's turned the former first-overall pick into a kid who's pushing a 30-goal pace while Trocheck has racked up 18 points in 13 games since getting bumped to the top six. He's making anyone and everyone better - so much better that his Rangers are the league's top team and probably haven't even played their best hockey yet.

Yeah I know. It's a long season. Who cares about December, nothing matters until playoffs, blah blah blah. I'll tell you who cares. I do. Fans of the #1 squad in the NHL do. And if Artemi Panarin is truly in for a career year then not only can the Blueshirts be in for their greatest regular season in history, they'll be celebrating their first Hart Trophy winner in over 30 years to boot.

VIVA LA BLUESHIRTS!!!

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