Colin Stephenson: For Rangers and their fans, things may look bleak for a while in a post-Panarin world

The trade that sent Artemi Panarin to the L.A. Kings on Wednesday brought about closure to an uncomfortable situation for the Rangers, and that’s a good thing.

“I just think the finality of it is finally here,’’ Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said at Thursday’s morning skate before the Blueshirts played their final game before the Olympics at the Garden against the Carolina Hurricanes. “You know, sometimes just the anxiety or the uncertainty is more difficult to deal with than the finality of it. Everybody can move on.’’

Yes, the Rangers can move on from Panarin now, and that’s better than the limbo they were in when he was sitting out games last week due to “roster management,’’ while the team was trying to trade him. But as they move on, the Rangers players, coaches, management and fans must all realize that things are going to look pretty grim in a post-Panarin world.

And they could for a long time.

In his Jan. 16 message to the fans, and again in his Zoom call with beat reporters Wednesday night after the Panarin trade, general manager Chris Drury was adamant that what the Rangers are going through right now is a “retool,’’ and not a “rebuild.’’ There is a difference, he said Wednesday night, though he didn’t define that difference.

“As we said in the letter, it is a retool,’’ he said. “We’re certainly not going to sit here and put a timeline on it right now. We're going to try to do everything we can to get back to being a contending team as quickly as we can. And we have identified, and continue identify, players that we want here, and want to stay here and go forward and build around and move forward with.’’

The problem, of course, is that the players you would ostensibly want to build around are the same ones other teams want. Vincent Trocheck, for example, is a solid, gritty, high-character center who plays on the power play and the penalty kill, wins faceoffs, and helps set the culture the Rangers say they are trying to build. And he’s under contract for three more years after this, at a very reasonable $5.625 million average annual value.

So, under normal circumstances, he’s a guy you’d absolutely want to keep. But he’s also a guy contending teams would want, and trading him could bring back a pretty big haul in future assets.

Having already traded Panarin (who signed a surprisingly short two-year, $22 million contract extension with the Kings) for a player, Liam Greentree, who’s still playing junior hockey, plus a conditional third-round draft pick – in other words, nothing that helps them immediately – if the Rangers end up trading Trocheck, the talent drain from the roster will be immense.

Imagine a 2026-27 roster without Panarin, and without Trocheck. Mika Zibanejad is a good player having a good year, but can he and J.T. Miller – both turning 33 this spring – drive the team offensively by themselves? Has 20-year-old Gabe Perreault, who’s learning on the job right now, shown he’s ready to carry a heavy load next season?

Sure, goaltender Igor Shesterkin and defenseman Adam Fox will return from injuries after the Olympic break, and defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov has been as good as advertised when he signed with the Rangers as a free agent last summer (even better, given his career-high nine goals, which is a bonus). But if that’s all this team has, it will be tough to be competitive on a nightly basis next season.

This summer’s free agent class doesn’t appear to have a franchise-changing player in it, so the Rangers’ best hope of a quick turnaround would be to land a superstar player in this summer’s draft, like a Connor Bedard, Macklin Celebrini or Matthew Schaefer. So, to that end, more losses now might be the ticket to a better chance in the draft lottery of getting a pick that nets a transformative player.

Sullivan, who took over as coach last summer after parting ways with the Penguins, was asked if, when he looked at the Rangers’ roster as he considered taking the job, he had any inkling that a rebuild, or retool, or reset might be coming in the near future.

“I knew where the group was at, just the core group, as far as where they are in their respective careers, and in the opportunity to be competitive,’’ Sullivan said. “Did I anticipate it? Did I anticipate us being here this year? No.’’

Well, they’re here now. And could be for a while.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.