Artemi Panarin is the best player on the New York Rangers. Since signing a seven-year contract worth $81.5 million on July 1, 2019, he’s been the best free agent the Rangers have ever had in franchise history.

A great skater who makes teammates better due to his tremendous playmaking skills and tremendous vision, Panarin has led the Rangers in scoring for six straight seasons. After achieving career bests with 49 goals and 71 assists for 120 points in 2023-24, the 33-year-old forward posted 37 goals and 52 assists for 89 points to pace the Blueshirts in 2024-25.

Despite the Bread Man producing some of his best hockey down the stretch, it wasn’t good enough to get the team into the playoffs. For the first time since he joined the Rangers, Panarin finished with a minus rating (-9). It was more an indication of how flawed the roster was. They weren’t good enough defensively and lacked discipline and structure. For those reasons, Peter Laviolette was dismissed a day before Easter with Phil Housley joining him. Once again, the Rangers are searching for a new coach.

Over his six-year career as a Ranger, Panarin has averaged over a point-per-game. In fact, his numbers are exemplary of the star he is. In 430 games, he has 186 goals and 364 assists for 550 points. That kind of consistent production has made him one of the game’s brightest stars. Unfortunately, it’s yet to result in a Stanley Cup. The Rangers made two appearances in the Conference Finals but fell short of their goal.

Panarin, MSG Reached Settlement with Former MSG Employee for Sexual Assault Claim

A day after Panarin won the Team MVP and Good Guy award as voted by the media, Katie Strang delivered a bombshell in an exclusive story that appeared in The Athletic. Panarin and MSG reached a settlement agreement with a former employee who allegedly accused him of sexual assault in December 2023.

In August 2024, the woman left the organization after reaching agreement on non-disclosure and no admission of wrongdoing clauses. According to Strang, several people in the organization knew about the agreements and why she no longer was employed by MSG. The individuals who spoke to The Athletic about the story had their identity withheld due to still having jobs in hockey.

The alleged assault occurred in December 2023 during a Rangers road trip, according to two Rangers sources briefed about the allegation. Panarin and the woman, who was a regular part of the team’s traveling party, were at a postgame gathering at a hotel with about a dozen other players and staff members. Panarin allegedly took her phone and said he would only give it back if she retrieved it from his hotel room, the sources said. When she went to his hotel room to retrieve her device, Panarin pinned her down on the bed. She pushed him off, retrieved her phone and left the room.

There is no record of the woman reporting the incident to law enforcement. Both MSG and the NHL consider the matter closed. When approached about the story, neither Panarin nor his agent responded to the request.

In a separate story, the same woman shared her anti-anxiety medication with a player. She suffered from anxiety from airplane travel, which the player also had. However, it’s considered dangerous for anyone to share medicine. MSG placed her on paid leave pending the outcome of an investigation.

Feeling that she’d been treated unfairly, she then informed the team of the alleged assault. MSG Sports held a virtual meeting with Rangers staff members and a human resources representative. An attorney warned them not to discuss the woman’s situation.

One person who worked for the Rangers at the time the woman was placed on leave said the suddenness of the woman’s exit made it a topic of conversation within the organization: “It’s not a secret at all anytime someone vanishes.”

It wasn’t the first time Panarin was accused of assault. In February 2021, reports surfaced in a Russian newspaper that he physically assaulted an 18-year-old woman in Latvia back in 2011. He took a personal leave of absence to return home to his family.

The Rangers denied the accusations, labeling it as an intimidation tactic due to Panarin’s strong comments on Russian politics, in reference to Vladimir Putin. Despite the hysteria, nothing ever came of it. It magically went away. He returned to the team and completed the 2020-21 season.

Questions Remain for Panarin, Rangers

There are two schools of thought. If the alleged assault took place during the 2023-24 season, how come we never heard about it until now? MSG must’ve kept it under wraps. They like to bury these stories and hope they’ll go away without ever becoming public.

How come Panarin never missed a single game? That doesn’t sit well with many fans now. At the time, he was in contention for the Hart Trophy. When such serious allegations are made, it shouldn’t be ignored. Both MSG and the Rangers addressed the situation without anyone knowing what happened. Maybe that’s what the woman wanted. It still makes me feel a little uncomfortable.

Obviously, big corporations will do exactly what MSG did to address what happened with Panarin and the woman. When asked if he had anything to say about the story from reporters following the final game of the season on Apr. 17, Panarin said, “No.” He also asked why. As if it wasn’t a big topic of discussion. That response didn’t come off well.

Panarin put himself in a bad situation. If it was a prank, it wasn’t well thought out. He took her phone and forced her to come to his hotel room to get it back. Then, he allegedly pinned her down before she wrestled it away. At the time of the alleged incident, his wife was pregnant with their first child. Even if he didn’t do anything wrong, it looks bad.

The Rangers have a lot of questions moving forward this off-season. At the top of the list is naming a new head coach. They also will be making changes to the roster, with possibly both Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad getting moved this summer. Panarin will likely remain with the team to play the final year of his contract. He wasn’t disciplined. They should have investigated what happened. That falls on MSG.

Will the league conduct an investigation into the alleged incident? They like to turn a blind eye to things. Regardless, it’s a subject that won’t go away anytime soon. What an embarrassing season.