Post-Game Talk: 8 Years, $92 Million

[TGWL]

Is Panarin a hall of fame forward? We're paying him like one for the last 6 years. He was supposed to be that guy. No one has been blaming Igor at the end of the last 3 seasons. what I do find myself thinking is how things could be different if Panarin can score a clutch goal more than once a month. for that money, he should.

Panarin earned his money for most of his contract.

 

[Levitate]

for the record while I generally like Igor I also argued loudly that you can't give him that contract because he's not so much better than other goalies and he hasn't been consistent enough to be "the best goalie in the league" or the "best player on the team"

It 100% was a mistake to give him that contract. The only saving grace might be the cap shooting up so it doesn't sting so bad to have that large chunk of cap space tied up in a "usually pretty good" goalie

 

[Machinehead]

Is Panarin a hall of fame forward? We're paying him like one for the last 6 years. He was supposed to be that guy. No one has been blaming Igor at the end of the last 3 seasons. what I do find myself thinking is how things could be different if Panarin can score a clutch goal more than once a month. for that money, he should.

Yes, he probably should be, and coming over late is the only thing that makes him not a shoo-in.

You probably need more than one and if you have one, it needs to be a center.

And yes, absolutely, Panarin should be panned for his performance in the playoffs as a Ranger. I would be a lot less willing to put up with his shit if we weren't a fish in the Mohave in regard to elite forwards.

If we had McDavid/MacKinnon/Eichel/Matthews/Hughes/Barkov I'd say "f*** Panarin, build around this other guy."

 

[Jack Hanson]

The reason they gave Igor the contract was there was so much drama going on with Trouba and the media saying the Rangers were crashing and burning that Drury thought, the last thing we need now is losing our goalie. They just didnt want that reputational damage and perception of a team in disarray. Not that Igor isnt a very good goalie. Its just that hes not consistently very good. Sometimes hes excellent other times hes just good like last night. A fair annual rate for Igor would be 10mm max but someone would pay more no doubt. I wouldnt have had a problem with them letting him walk but now hes ours for the long haul. If he had better defense in front of him he wouldnt get so worn out and let the soft goal slip past. So I guess to maximize Igors value we need a better overall defense. Adding Borgen and Vaakanainen helped some but were not there yet.

 

[McRanger92]

Panarin earned his money for most of his contract.

"Earned" is strong. He hasnt played within structure at all and got his own personal linemates upon request while he's been here but yes he did put up a lot of points.

I just dont get why Igor plays great on a discounted contract for 5 years, specifically in the playoffs, and now that he gets his big contract, its a fatal error. The fatal error was already made back in 19-20. It's much easier to find an elite wing than it is to find an elite goalie.

 

[TGWL]

"Earned" is strong. He hasnt played within structure at all and got his own personal linemates upon request while he's been here but yes he did put up a lot of points.

I just dont get why Igor plays great on a discounted contract for 5 years, specifically in the playoffs, and now that he gets his big contract, its a fatal error. The fatal error was already made back in 19-20. It's much easier to find an elite wing than it is to find an elite goalie.

He hasn't played great for 5 years, though. He earned that rep with the fans from the playoffs. Since the 2021-2022 season, he's gotten worse in each season. That's 3 straight seasons.

 

[Machinehead]

 

[kovazub94]

Every goalie allows softies, but Hank over time performed at a vastly different level than Igor has thus far.

I don’t follow hockey the way I once did. But I know hockey history pretty well. And I can make a strong case for Hank as one of the 10 best goalies in history.

I’d say (in no order) Hasek, Plante, and Roy are your all-time top 3. Hank for dead sure sits in the next 7-10 guys behind that top 3.

Igor, at least thus far, is not remotely near that level – but he’s gonna be paid like he is.

I don’t begrudge Igor for getting every dollar he can. But his salary demand also placed a self-created spotlight and expectation on him. And no one should be shocked when people measure him against the salary he demanded.

People do this with any player performing below their salary (especially higher-paid athletes).

I love Hank and do think that there is an extremely good argument for him being the best goalie of his generation. He was also paid top dollars during his time and he annually had stretches of sub-par performances. It's a fact.
Igor does not yet a length of career to make a comparison to the King but so far he does have his Vesina, a sparkling playoff stats and for a number of years has been considered a top-3 or top-5 NHL goalie. The rest time will tell.

 

[Leonardo87]

Gonna miss Sam.

 

[TheWrongWay]

I love Hank and do think that there is an extremely good argument for him being the best goalie of his generation. He was also paid top dollars during his time and he annually had stretches of sub-par performances. It's a fact.
Igor does not yet a length of career to make a comparison to the King but so far he does have his Vesina, a sparkling playoff stats and for a number of years has been considered a top-3 or top-5 NHL goalie. The rest time will tell.

Time will tell, for sure.

Hank definitely had bad days. I’ve seen the same from Hasek, Roy, Brodeur, Parent, Tretiak, and so on. We’re all human and messy as f***. Sometimes we all suck.

I won’t end up comparing Hank and Igor. I hope, in the end, both have great careers and great personal lives. I hope the same for just about everyone (unless they harm others maliciously).

Ultimately, I don’t care about teams I don’t play on with players I don’t personally know. My wife, kids, and family are my actual team. But I do like to loosely chat about hockey and music tho.

Hank and Igor though…

Hank got paid in his day. Igor will soon. When you get the big dollars, eyes are going to be watching you and expecting you to deliver.

^ This is the same anywhere. If you or I are doing a job, and someone gets paid 3x more to do the same job, we will rightly expect them to crush us on performance. And we will be very pissed off if they don’t.

 

[will1066]

What's the team's shooting percentage this season? I feel it still doesn't finish well. I know this feeling is not unique and every fanbase of every team feels this way. But it's still terrible from the eye test.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

Panarin earned his money for most of his contract.

Yeah can’t really argue against that if you want to go into it with the mindset that players are paid during the regular season. On that end, he’s probably over performed.

He’s been a dud in the playoffs and that’s an issue because at his price point, you really can’t afford the historic drop off from RS to PS that were seen with Panarin here.


He and Igor are polar opposites of each other on that end.