Free Agency 2026 Could Only Have One or Two Big Names, If at All
Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period joined Sirius XM NHL Network Radio on Monday morning with Scott Laughlin and Gord Stellick. Pagnotta was asked about the 2026 UFA Class and whether Artemi Panarin of the New York Rangers could be the last man standing come July 1st.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
Scott Laughlin: “As we look ahead to unrestricted free agency now coming up next summer, many are wondering whether or not unrestricted free agency is now officially dead. There’s still the Breadman out there, Artemi Panarin, is still looking for a contract. He got the nice haircut recently, where there was not much left to the imagination, right, David? It seems to have worked better for the Breadman.
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Panarin, who, for the most part, night, notwithstanding, has been putting up more of a point total here of late. But what are we thinking about Panarin here? Will he be the only shining star coming up on July 1 that we’ll be talking about? Or do you think that there’s still an opportunity here in the coming weeks, and dare we say, even months ahead, for the Rangers to get something done with him?”
Dave Pagnotta: “Yeah, I think first of all, if he keeps this up, maybe the rest of the team should start shaving their heads, too. He’s been playing the last five, six games, whatever it is, head games, right? You mind bleep yourself sometimes, and it pays off, and it works, and he’s doing well, so maybe that’ll have a trickle-down effect. But I think the Rangers still want to see what they’ve got here.
And it has sounded like he is looking for a little extra term. But three years might be where the Rangers are comfortable with three or four. I think he’s more in the five range, but in terms of their initial discussions. But I still think they want to continue to see exactly where they’re at, what they’ve got.
Spirited end to the game yesterday (Sunday), losing 2-1 to Detroit, with Quick getting in the mix on everything. But I think they still want to see if that energy, first of all, is going to carry over? Is that going to help galvanize this team a little bit and get them going? And if so, if they start to go on a heater and and go on a run here, then I think it gives them a little bit more argument to try to keep a guy like Artemi Panarin into the fold for a while.
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You’ve got Kempe, not anymore. He’s out. But Alex Tuch is at the top of the list as well. Nick Schmaltz. There are others on expiring deals – Boone Jenner, who’s battling injury right now. Like, there’s going to be some quality pieces, but certainly not the star-studded affair we would have liked on July 1st.
And I do wonder, as the seasons progress here, and as things kind of move along, this becomes more of a trend, because so many teams have so much more cap space to play with. Do we look at the trade market now as an area where we going to see those big blockbuster-esque type moves again that we’ve seen in previous years? Dating back a while back when you saw future Hall of Famer for future Hall of Famer and things like that.
Teams looking to shake things up may have to go and be a little bit more aggressive in the trade market, because some of what they’d like to do via free agency just won’t be available to them. So that’ll be interesting.
I’m sure there are teams keeping tabs on what the Rangers are going to do with Panarin, but I still think the Rangers are in wait-and-see mode with respect to how their season is going to play out.”
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