Panarin ready to help ignite Kings offense for playoff push

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Artemi Panarin was the first player on the ice for the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday, in his first skate with his new team as they returned to practice at Toyota Sports Performance Center following a two-week pause for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.

The Kings are hoping Panarin will lead them to plenty of other places, including to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the fifth straight season, after acquiring the 34-year-old forward in a trade with the New York Rangers on Feb. 4 for forward prospect Liam Greentree, a conditional third-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft and a conditional fourth-round pick in the 2028 NHL Draft.

"A little tough for conditioning stuff because of a pretty long break, but it was fun," Panarin said, wearing a black Kings T-shirt. "Nice to see guys around because I skated by myself a few times, and that's not that fun."

Panarin, who arrived in Southern California three days earlier, has been staying at the house of former Rangers teammate Vladislav Gavrikov, who played for Los Angeles the previous two seasons.

Getting in a week of practice before he is expected to make his Kings debut against the Vegas Golden Knights at Crypto.com Arena on Feb. 25 is the "perfect" scenario, Panarin said.

"Gives me time to meet the guys and get in a couple practices," he said. "Usually, guys (who are traded) got to play the next day on the other side of the country, so it's easier for me."

Panarin figures to give the Los Angeles offense a huge jolt; the ninth-leading scorer in Rangers history (607 points; 205 goals, 402 assists in 482 games) had 57 points (19 goals, 38 assists) in 52 games and led New York in scoring at the time of the trade.

The Kings, who entered the Olympic break three points behind the Anaheim Ducks for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference, are tied for 29th in the NHL at 2.54 goals-per-game and 29th on the power play at 16 percent.

"Whoever's going to play with Artemi is going to have to get up to speed with how he plays, his style of game," Los Angeles coach Jim Hiller said. "I think that will be the most important factor, is just understanding how he plays and being able to play off him."

Panarin said he had not yet discussed with the coaching staff how they plan to use him, but he skated with Alex Laferriere on Wednesday and is expected to be joined on the same line by Adrian Kempe when he returns from the Olympics.

"I'm just trying to read off him and just try and find the open ice because I know he's an unbelievable passer and can score a lot of goals," Laferriere said. "He's a really fun player to play with."

The Rangers retained 50 percent of Panarin's salary for the final year of a seven-year, $81.5 million contract. Following the trade, Panarin signed a two-year, $11 million contract with the Kings.

The addition of Panarin became even more crucial following the season-ending injury to forward Kevin Fiala on Friday.

Fiala, who was second on the Kings in goals (18) and points (40), sustained a fractured left leg while playing for Switzerland in a 5-1 loss to Canada in a Group A game at Santagiulia Arena on Friday.

"There's always a downside risk for certain teams," Hiller said of having NHL players participate in the Olympics. "We happened to catch a bad break."

Laferriere said Fiala's presence in the locker room will be just as missed.

"Kevin's such an unbelievable player and even better person," Laferriere said. "You can see how much representing his country meant to him. Going to all those world championships every year, and being able to go to the Olympics was something that he was looking forward to for a long time. So you see him go down and you just feel for him."