Ex-Rangers star recalls trade to Coyotes: ‘heart ripped out of your chest’
Not all trades are created equal in the NHL. And there’s no question few if any trades in New York Rangers history mirror the circumstances of the one they’re attempting to make this season involving Artemi Panarin.
Simply, it’s not every day a team ships out one of its all-time greatest offensive players. But that’s the case with retooling Rangers, who opted to re-stock their pipeline and re-set their roster by trading Panarin, an unrestricted free agent at season’s end. Though no trade’s been completed just yet, Panarin played his final game with the Rangers and is now focused on leveraging where his next NHL destination will be, considering he owns a full no-movement clause in his contract.
Panarin reportedly was surprised by the Rangers decision to publicly announce a retool and move on without offering him a contract extension a few weeks ago. But any angst or sad feelings likely are tempered by the fact that he has control over what happens next and there’ll be no surprises ahead of the March 6 NHL Trade Deadline.
That wasn’t exactly the case for Derek Stepan nine years ago.
Stepan is the first to tell you he’s not in the same league as Panarin. But make no mistake, Stepan was a very important — and popular — member of the Rangers core for seven seasons. So, when the homegrown Blueshirt got the call from general manager Jeff Gorton on June 23, 2017 that the Rangers traded him to the Arizona Coyotes, he was, shall we say, less than thrilled.
“I got the call from ‘Gorts’ and as soon as I saw it, I was kind of like ‘He’s never called me before,’ it was kind of a sick feeling. There’s no way this is a good call. This isn’t a ‘Hey, just wanted to check in and see how your summer was going,'” Stepan told Forever Blueshirts on the RINK RAP podcast. “Then I picked up the phone and your heart kind of sinks, and there’s a lot of emotions with it, and kind of like your heart ripped out your chest type feeling.”
Where Panarin is one of the few star players to have time to adjust to the idea of being traded well before it actually happens, Stepan received no such heads up from the Rangers.
“From a standpoint of if I knew it was coming, there was … a lot of chatter (rumors) about me, but I was kind of like ‘No way, this is my home, I’m going to be here forever,’ which, I still was young at the time (27), maybe a little naive,” Stepan explained. “But yeah, I had an inkling, I knew there was a probability, but I was like ‘man, there’s no way,’ in my own head.”
Stepan was able to draw some similarity between his trade out of New York and Panarin’s current situation. Each occurred after a Rangers downturn following several years of success. The Stepan trade — for defenseman Tony DeAngelo and a first-round pick (No. 7 overall, which ended up being bust Lias Andersson), with goalie Antti Raanta also heading to the Coyotes — really set up what happened next, when the Rangers announced a full-on rebuild in Feb. of 2018. Panarin’s upcoming trade is the next big move in the latest organizational retool following a string of trades in the past year.
“Now, if I sit back and really take a look at it, the group we had when I was there was pretty much gone a few years later after I left. Maybe I was one of the first dominoes,” Stepan shared.
Derek Stepan ‘wanted to stay in New York’ when traded by Rangers in 2017
Stepan never missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs in his sevens seasons on Broadway. He helped the Rangers reach the Eastern Conference Final three times (2012, 2014, 2015) and the 2014 Stanley Cup Final, when Jonathan Quick and the Los Angeles Kings defeated them in five games.
The 97 postseason games Stepan played with the Rangers are fourth most in their history. His 49 playoff points (19 goals, 30 assists) are ninth most all-time. And his Game 7 series-winning goal in overtime against the Washington Capitals in the 2015 second round is one of the most iconic postseason moments in Rangers history.
“No disrespect to the other organizations that I played for, but, hell no, I wanted to stay in New York,” Stepan stated firmly.
Still, he played six more seasons in the NHL, including the final four remaining on a $6.5 million AAV contract he originally signed with the Rangers in July of 2015. Stepan retired after the 2022-23 season and now works for the Minnesota Wild in a player development role.
In 890 regular-season games as a solid two-way center with the Rangers, Coyotes, Ottawa Senators, and Carolina Hurricanes, Stepan totaled 515 points (182 goals, 333 assists).
