INSIDER: Ken Holland Speaks on Artemi Panarin Trade

In advance of Wednesday’s game against the Seattle Kraken, Kings General Manager Ken Holland met with the media, with the bulk of the discussion centered around the acquisition of forward Artemi Panarin from the New York Rangers earlier in the day.

The media availability was actually pre-scheduled, as a chance to hear from the team’s General Manager in advance of the Olympic break to assess the team’s play to that point and potential plans for the group coming out of the break. Yesterday’s trade certainly changed the direction of that availability, with just about every question directed coming about the dynamic winger. Sharing a few of the key takeaways below, as well as the full video for those who would like to watch but haven’t had the chance just yet.

– So how did the trade come together?

“Lots of conversations with [New York Rangers General Manager] Chris Drury,” Holland said. “As we got into today, my feeling was that we were on a short list of teams that he would go to and we had to find a solution to make a deal. Then, obviously once the deal was done, obviously we wanted an extension and Artemi wanted the extension too. So, it all came together probably in the last half hour, from 11:30 to 12 o’clock. There was quite a gap at 11 o’clock, one hour before, thought maybe we were kind of winding down, we go into the break and then it kind of got revived the last 45 minutes and you got the deal.”

Holland said there was certainly conversation between the two sides over the weekend and it was a long day of working through things at the start of the week. As he indicated, it felt at one point as if this might be a trade that would have to wait until after the Olympic roster freeze. Things turned for the better, especially as it became clear that Panarin’s number-one choice was Los Angeles. It certainly benefitted the Kings to get the deal done now and I can’t see how it made a ton of sense for the Rangers to want things to drag out either, especially considering the leverage that Panarin held in the situation. Things came together today and it was good to get the deal done.

– One thing that became very clear to Holland and the Kings, by the time he actually pulled the trigger on the deal, is that Panarin wanted to come to Los Angeles.

“Talking to Panarin, he’s really excited to come to LA, I think this was his number-one destination, so you’re getting a player motivated, that wants to come out here,” Holland said. “There’s been four disappointing playoffs in a row and hopefully he can help make a difference to help get us in. Once you get into the tournament, let’s see what happens. Certainly, right now, there’s going to be a real race and I’m hoping that the move we did today gives us a little bit of a boost to to make a push in the last 28 games.”

Probably an understatement that the last four years have been disappointing in the playoffs. But could a Panarin have made a difference in at least one of those series? Scored one or two more goals that made the difference? Certainly think he might have last year and likely would’ve said the same thing in 2023. The Kings always give you an honest showing, regular season or playoffs, but they have not matched the star power that Edmonton brings to the table. Not to say that Panarin does that 1-for-1, but he’s a gamebreaker and a high-caliber offensive player. Could’ve been the difference last year and maybe he can be now.

To get a star player to say I want to be a Los Angeles King, that’s a great thing for the organization.

– No, you won’t see Artemi Panarin tonight for the Kings in Las Vegas, as electric as that would have been.

Holland said that he had a good call with Panarin yesterday and everyone agreed that Panarin would join the Kings for practice on February 18, the first skate coming out of the break, as opposed to trying to get him into Vegas to potentially play tonight. `

“He’s not going to join us [in Las Vegas], I talked to him, he hasn’t played or practiced in a week, so he’s going to join us when we’re on the ice on the 18th,” Holland said. “The coaching staff have a lot of time here to figure out exactly where he fits and then once he gets here, to have that communication and conversations and kind of see where he fits, that we can get the get the most out of him. That’s that’s our job to get the most out of each player.”

That plays into another question, which is where to the Kings see Panarin fitting into the lineup. He’ll be a Top-6 player, certainly, and he will play on the power play. At 5-on-5, though, it’ll be really interesting to see where he fits in. Does he gel best with Adrian Kempe or Kevin Fiala, or possibly he works better with a guy like Quinton Byfield or Alex Laferriere, or maybe he’s the winger that Anze Kopitar has sought for years. I’m not sure. But the good news is, the Kings have a lot of time to figure that out. Yeah, it would’ve been awesome for Panarin to roll into Vegas tomorrow and lead the Kings to a win over the Golden Knights. But seeing as he was held out by the Rangers, it doesn’t make sense to chance anything. He’ll be there on February 18 when the Kings hit the ice in El Segundo and we’ll go from there.

– So, what’s next?

Well, for now, it’s nothing. Trades are not allowed during the time that players are competing in the Winter Olympics, so any further moves will need to wait.

Holland estimated that things will go pretty quiet among NHL General Managers over the next 10-12 days or so, but as the league gets closer to resuming play, he thinks things will pick back up again. There’s nothing against negotiating trades during the break, just executing them. Holland said he will continue to work the phones in an effort to continue to improve the roster.

“I’m going to work the phones,” he said. “I would say to you right now that the trade deadline is gone, I think things are going to go quiet now for about 10-12 days, maybe the last week, just before we’re going to start to come out of the Olympic break, I’m sure phone calls will start coming in. I’ll work the phone and see what’s out there.”

Based on today’s availability, I would see those moves coming at the forward position, should the Kings do anything else. Holland indicated that he is happy with the group of six on the blueline at this time and I don’t see a goaltending change made.

In terms of his depth at the center position, Holland admitted it’s something that certainly needs to be evaluated in the offseason, with Anze Kopitar retiring, but he didn’t commit one way or the other as to an in-season move.

“When we’re healthy, we feel pretty good about our center-icemen,” Holland said. “When we didn’t have Kopi, he’s a big guy in the circle for us, we had a real struggle there for a while in the faceoff circle, but getting Kopi back has really helped that. Obviously we’ve got to get Turcotte back and I think that Helenius has made some nice strides here the last four, five, six weeks. So, you know the center position is going to probably be a topic of conversation for sure in the offseason.”

Certainly didn’t seem committal one way or the other.

Holland added later that he sees the second-round pick acquired in the Phillip Danault trade as being an asset he almost hopes to move to improve the NHL roster, noting that the Kings have two, but he seemed to prioritize holding onto his first-round draft pick in this trade specifically. See how that goes down the road, but for now, he didn’t seem particularly excited to move that pick to upgrade now.

– Lastly, here’s Holland speaking about the direction of the franchise right now, as he sees it.

“I guess there’s two ways to look at it, you either compete or you go into this long-term rebuild,” Holland said. “We’re not interested in a long-term rebuild, I’m not interested in the long-term rebuild and I think some of the people that we signed are not interested in that. So, we’re trying to compete. Team has made the playoffs four straight years in a row and when I look at our division, there’s six teams from 64 to 58, so nobody’s really running away. It’s a tight division. We made the move today to make our team better, try to create and get some more goals, put a little pop in the power play and try to play our way into the playoffs. Once you get in, everybody wants to make noise in the playoffs.”

If you needed any additional signaling, the Kings do not intend to rebuild at all at this time. They’re trying to compete and the Panarin trade certainly moves things in that direction.

Embedding Holland’s full availability below for those who would like to watch! Expecting to hear from Artemi Panarin himself before the game in Vegas and will share those takeaways on Friday before hitting the break.