I can’t ever see them doing it. I think their mentality is that if they give up 2 goals the defense did their job and the forwards have to figure it out. And when they can’t score its because they’re “not going to the hard areas” or “willing to pay the price”.
I think both things can be true.
I don't think anyone is wrong when they say that this team won't go into the tough areas of the ice to score goals. It's been a problem forever. Panarin is as guilty of that as anyone but then again, he's been that guy for years now. He is not and will never be a guy who can carry the team through a run so yeah, the criticisms there are valid and should apply because of how much money he's making.
I also think they could have won this year with the same group of forwards doing what they did if they had competent defenders in their top 4 in place of Trouba and Lindgren. It remains their single biggest issue and what ever they do this offseason doesn't matter if they don't rectify that first.
I'm off the opinion that this team would be better off with out all 3 players listed above. While it's basically impossible to replace 120 points, Artemi himself isn't going to do that either so it really becomes weighing would you rather have what ever 2024-25 Panarin is or what ever you can get for him in a trade+what ever money is left over. I'm having a hard time seeing how we fix the defense with out pushing money out and moving him would take care of A LOT of that (both in terms of money and a return to fix at least half of our D issues.)