EAST MEADOW, N.Y. — For the first time since January, longtime Rangers forward Artemi Panarin is set to suit up for games in the New York area. Traded to Los Angeles on Feb. 4, he and the Kings are set to play the Islanders on Friday and the Devils on Saturday. Then, on Monday, he’ll make his return to Madison Square Garden, his home rink for 6 1/2 seasons.

“I wish it was going to be next year, but I’ve got to deal with that pretty soon,” he said after a Kings practice Thursday in East Meadow. “I’m sure I’m going to be nervous. … Obviously excited to see the fans.”

Panarin signed a seven-year, $11.64 million average annual value contract with the Rangers in 2019 and proceeded to have 607 points in 482 games. He helped the Rangers to a pair of Eastern Conference final appearances and twice finished in the top five in MVP voting. But he and Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury were unable to agree to a contract extension before the 2025-26 season — Panarin previously said New York’s offer made him unsure the team wanted him — and the Rangers failed to rebound from a disappointing 2024-25 season when games began. In January, Drury sent a letter to fans announcing a retool and told Panarin he would not be offering him a contract extension.

“Felt pretty sad in the beginning but also explained to myself why it’s better,” Panarin said. “I have a few things I think are going to be better. I’m not going to share with you why.”

He added he was “also a little bit ready” for the decision.

“I was never going to make that move by myself,” he said. “So it’s kind of easier for me for people to figure it out for me.”

Panarin said he was “thinking too much” about his contract situation early in the season, but he felt he corrected his play as it progressed. He had 57 points in 52 games with the Rangers this season and was the team’s leading scorer at the time of the trade. He said he thought perhaps his uptick in production would potentially lead to a new deal. It did not, and on Jan. 28, 12 days after Drury’s letter, the Rangers began scratching him for roster management reasons. Panarin had a full no-movement clause, and the Rangers gave him permission to speak with other teams. He and his camp evaluated suitors and their extension offers and eventually informed the Rangers he picked the Kings. The trade went through the day of the Olympic break roster freeze, and Panarin promptly signed a two-year, $11 million AAV extension.

Panarin — who temporarily lived in former Rangers’ teammate Vladislav Gavrikov’s Los Angeles house before getting a home of his own — expected that the Olympic break would help him settle into a new situation but found that not to be the case.

“I was thinking too much,” said the wing, who has eight points in eight games with Los Angeles. “It took me probably two or three games (with the Kings) to relax. … I was waiting three weeks thinking. I have trouble when I start thinking.”

Los Angeles is in the playoff mix: 10th in the West in point percentage and tied with Seattle for eighth in actual points. Panarin has found that exciting.

“Obviously a better atmosphere in the locker room,” he said. “If you already know you’re in last place, it’s not that fun in the locker room, even if we try to help each other.” 

New York, meanwhile, sits at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings. Key players Igor Shesterkin, Adam Fox, Vincent Trocheck and J.T. Miller have all missed stretches of play while hurt, which Panarin believes contributed to the team’s poor results.

“I think injuries gave us a hard time,” Panarin said. “(All the) time we had one of the top guys injured. We did not have enough depth for the top six. We were working with limited options.”

Panarin finished his time with the Rangers as the franchise record holder in points per game (1.26).

Toward the end of Panarin’s tenure with the team, on the final day of the 2024-25 season, The Athletic’s Katie Strang reported that he and Madison Square Garden paid financial settlements to a Rangers employee in 2024 after she alleged that Panarin sexually assaulted her. Panarin had declined comment on the settlement on multiple occasions, and he did again when asked Thursday.

Panarin feels good about his fit in Los Angeles. He said he went partially off of gut feeling when choosing a team — as he did when he signed his first contract with Chicago in 2015 and with the Rangers as a free agent in 2019 — and wanted to choose a destination where he wouldn’t feel “sad about the city, the team or something.”

“Now I’m sad about taxes only,” he said with a smile.

Panarin had an apartment in Manhattan and a house in Greenwich, Connecticut, while with the Rangers, and he stayed in his apartment Wednesday night. He and the Kings will have an off day in the city Sunday, and Panarin laughed that he’s going to “spend some time in the bar.”

“I sure I’m going to have nostalgia (being back in the city) next year,” he said. “Now it’s too soon.”