Buffalo Sabres and New York Rangers

Where Do Things Stand with Alex Tuch and Artemi Panarin?

Dave Pagnotta of The Fourth Period joined Sirius XM NHL Network on Tuesday with Steve Kouleas and Andrew Raycroft. There, he was asked about the situations with Alex Tuch in Buffalo and Artemi Panarin in New York with the Rangers.

NHLRumors.com Transcriptions

Steve Kouleas: “Does the Sabres run affect from what you feel or know, anything with Alex Tuch and the Rangers are already at 41 games and on pace for well less than 90 points, which means the (Artemi) Panarin watch will continue two sexy topics moving forward?”

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Dave Pagnotta: “Oh, absolutely. And there are a lot of teams that want to know what both the Sabres and the Rangers are going to do with both of those guys. First with Buffalo. Once Jarmo Kekäläinen came in, my understanding the way it was defined, it has been, to me is that they’ve had an introductory type of conversation between Tuch’s camp, led by Brian Bartlett and Jarmo Kekäläinen.

And the understanding is over January, not sure, later this week, or I suspect, hope, they’ll give it a little bit of time, because there’s no urgency at the moment, but throughout January, they’re going to have discussions and effectively contract negotiations, to see where they’re at.

And I don’t get the sense that his (Tuch’s) position has changed. If they’re going full term, I believe he’s looking at it around $10 million per. Does that increase a little bit more depending on structure? Can he get more than that on the open market, given the fact that it’s going to be a thin one, perhaps, and all of those things are going to come into play?

Both those discussions are going to be happening over this next month, and then they’ll have a pretty good idea. Jarmo Kekäläinen will have a pretty good idea as to the future of Alex Tuch is going to be in Buffalo, or is it going to have to, even if they keep things going, they’re going to have to look elsewhere, understanding that he’s not going to be able to stick around, or that he’s poised to test the market.

In New York City. They’re similar type of positions, similar situations, to an extent. Panarin is not going to be looking for sure. He’ll gladly take one, but I don’t think he’s going to be coming in with an eight year extension with the Rangers.

He certainly likes being in New York, but with the direction the Rangers are going in and a team that’s lurking and looking to see if they can take a really big swing at some point, their position with Panarin might be a little different and get into a shorter term, something in the three year range, I suspect they’ll entertain the possibility of keeping him.

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But at the same time, if they fall too far back, they’re going to be a lot of teams that would love to get their hands on a guy like that to help them on a Cup run. And Chris Drury and company may realize that, hey, this may be too good of an opportunity to pass up in terms of securing a sound return for a guy like Artemi.

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