Rangers star ‘had to change something,’ hopes shaving head helps end slump
New York Rangers forward Artemi Panarin hopes shaving his head this week has the same effect it did two years ago.
Panarin cut off his hair in the summer of 2023, got off to a hot start in 2023-24, and went on to have by far the best season of his NHL career. He finished with 49 goals and 120 points, was named an NHL First-Team All-Star and helped the Rangers win the Presidents’ Trophy as NHL regular-season champion.
But the Rangers’ leading scorer in each of the past six seasons is off to the worst start of his NHL career in 2025-26, with just seven points (two goals, five assists) in 14 games. That includes the career-worst six-game pointless streak he takes into a road contest against the Detroit Red Wings on Friday night.
Hence the new hairdo (or lack thereof).
“I had to change something,” he told Newsday’s Colin Stephenson. “Next stop, left stick for me.”
Four of Panarin’s seven points came against the Montreal Canadiens on Oct. 18, meaning he has points in just four of 14 games. His struggles mirror that of the team; the Rangers are last in the NHL with an average of 2.21 goals per game.
The Rangers are 6-6-2 overall, last in the Metropolitan Division by point percentage, and they’re 0-5-1 at Madison Square Garden, where they’ve been shut out four times in six home games. That includes a 3-0 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday, when they managed one harmless shot on goal in the game’s final 28 minutes.
Panarin had two shots on goal against the Hurricanes, including a wide-open point-blank look five minutes into the game, which was snuffed by goalie Pyotr Kochetkov.
“I need to do more,” he told The Athletic after practice on Thursday. “That’s about confidence, too. I’ve got to play with the puck more. I watch the games after, and it’s really kind of snowballed. I missed training camp, had a couple (injury) issues. I wasn’t feeling right from a conditioning standpoint in the first couple games. I started getting frustrated right away, and then it kind of goes into the contract and all that stuff in my head.”
The 34-year-old left wing, whose 1.25 points per game is tops in team history, is in the final season of the seven-year contract that he signed on July 1, 2019, and can become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. The Rangers are said to want to keep him beyond this season, but not for the $11.642 million average annual value of his current deal. However, Panarin reportedly doesn’t want to take a pay cut – though his slow start isn’t helping his cause.
Panarin told the The Athletic that he wants to stay in New York but admitted the uncertainty surrounding his future is weighing on him. He didn’t want to use that as an excuse for his sinking production — “I can’t say I’m thinking about that in the game,” he said — but said “sometimes I think” it could be a factor.
One person who’s not worried is coach Mike Sullivan, who feels that players of Panarin’s caliber can usually find ways to turn things around.
“I think it’s probably a little bit of both,” Sullivan said Tuesday, when asked if Panarin’s offensive struggles are due to goaltenders playing well — or if something is not clicking. “He’s definitely getting some looks. I think when he gets underneath people, and he gets inside the dots, he’s really dangerous.
“My experience in coaching players of his caliber is sometimes as coaches, we just have to be careful we don’t get in the way there. So we’re trying to give him a lot of latitude with his offensive game. We share our observations with him, but obviously, those types of players, what makes them unique is they tend to think the game differently than others, and that’s part of what makes them who they are.
“I’ve always been a strong believer that, I try not to get in the way of that process. So he’s at his best place and in that instinctive mindset, and he’s trusted his instincts, and we’re trying to encourage that.”
The Rangers hope Sullivan is right and that Panarin’s slow start won’t last. Returning to the Stanley Cup Playoffs after missing the postseason in 2024-25 will be hard enough; trying to do it without Panarin piling up points may well be impossible.
