Bread and circuses?

The key to the Kings acquiring prolific winger Artemi Panarin is whether coach Jim Hiller lets him play to his strengths or tries to make him a defense-first drone. At least this will be interesting.

The Kings needed scoring.

The New York Rangers, last in the Eastern conference, had made it clear they would not re-sign dynamic winger Artemi Panarin, but their trade leverage was limited by the rigid no-move clause in his contract.

Panarin ended the stalemate when he agreed to waive that no-move clause to go to Los Angeles. On Wednesday, the Kings acquired him from the Rangers for forward Liam Greentree—whom they had drafted 26th overall in 2024 and was for a while considered their top prospect—plus a conditional third-round draft pick in 2026 and a conditional fourth-round pick in 2028. The Rangers retained 50% of what’s left on Panarin’s current contract. Soon after the trade, the Kings announced they’d reached agreement with him on a two-year extension worth $11 million a year through 2027-28. That’s a bargain as such things go, though he will be 35 later this year.

Panarin, who is scheduled to speak with reporters via Zoom on Thursday, immediately became the Kings’ leading scorer this season, with 57 points in 52 games (Adrian Kempe is now second, with 20 goals and 46 points in 55 games). For his career, Russia-born Panarin ranks sixth among the active points-per-game leaders, at 1.153 points per game. His career totals are here. The Kings, who lost to Seattle 4-2 at the Crypt on Wednesday, will play at Las Vegas on Thursday in their final game before the NHL takes a break for the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.

General manager Ken Holland, speaking during the the Fan Duel Sports Network telecast Wednesday, said his talks with Rangers GM Chris Drury had heated up on Sunday and came to fruition a few minutes before the Olympic trade freeze began. He also said Panarin wouldn’t have agreed to the deal without the extension.

“We’re excited to add Artemi,” Holland said. “He’s [had] nine straight seasons of more than a point a game. I believe he’ll help on the power play. He dishes the puck. He’s like a centerman in the O-zone and hopefully he can come in and help bump up our offense a little bit.”

Holland also said he’s not concerned about Panarin’s age. “He’s got a high hockey IQ and he’s light on his feet,” Holland said, “so I think he’s got a lot of good hockey ahead of him.”

A goal-starved team gets a renowned scorer and game-breaker with a colorful nickname that was earned, according to various reports, because his name is similar to the Italian word for bread (pane), or the French word for bread (pain) or because it’s like the Panera Bread bakery company. A player who, by any name, was unhappy in his previous surroundings, gets a change of scenery to a place he chose.

Sounds like a match made in heaven.

Maybe. But with the Kings, nothing is ever easy or uncomplicated.

On paper, this should be a major plus for the Kings, who ranked 28th in the NHL in goals per game, at 2.56, after Wednesday’s action, and are not in a playoff spot. (The Rangers ranked 26th at 2.66 with Panarin in the lineup for all but four games, the last three while a trade was being arranged). Panarin is a pure scorer. He’s also exciting, a quality most of his teammates have notably lacked. Hockey is entertainment. Or at least, it should be.

The success of the trade comes down whether he will be allowed to be the dynamic, skillful player he has always been, or if coach Jim Hiller will handcuff him in the interest of preserving a defense-first system that suppresses creativity. Hiller must loosen the reins for this to have any chance of working in the short or the long term, and I’ll discuss that in a bit. Let Panarin lift those around him. Don’t drag him down to their current unimaginative offensive system with its defense-first-last-and-always mantra.

And for those who might ask why Hiller wouldn’t let Panarin be himself and fully use his special talents, remember that you’re dealing with a stubborn coach whose personnel usage and strategy have defied all logic. See last season’s playoffs for any number of examples. And this season’s early under-usage of Brandt Clarke, healthy scratch of Andrei Kuzmenko even through Kuzmenko was their best power play option, and a lopsided distribution of minutes worsened by an over-reliance on mistake-prone Drew Doughty.

Next question: Who will be Panarin’s center? Do the Kings have anyone who can keep up with Panarin and meet him at the same high level in terms of vision, anticipation, and execution? Certainly not 38-year-old Anze Kopitar, no longer in his prime as he finishes the final season of his distinguished career. Centering for Panarin would be a big ask of Alex Laferriere, probably more than he could handle.

A first line of Panarin, Quinton Byfield and Kempe seems worth a try, but Byfield remains frustratingly inconsistent. He has had some good spurts this season but he’s not as physical as he could be and has played to a second- or third-line level, not a No. 1 center. He’s on a pace to score about 46 points, a drop from the 54 he scored last season and the 55 he scored the season before that. If he can’t mesh with Panarin, the addition of a top-line center who could click with Panarin must rank near the top of Holland’s shopping list, if not after the Olympic trade freeze, then over the summer.

There are two more points worth mentioning here.

The departure of Greentree, the Kings’ first-round pick in 2024, represents another example of their failure to cultivate high draft picks. Byfield, No. 2 overall in 2020, has yet to play up to that status. Gabe Vilardi (11th, 2017), Rasmus Kupari (20th, 2018) and now Greentree are gone. Only Clarke, chosen eighth in 2021, has shown elite skills—and that after Hiller largely ignored him in the early stages of this season. Nor have the Kings hit big on later rounds of the draft to create the depth a contending team must have. Their scouting and development system needs a thorough examination, at least, and maybe an overhaul.

The other question that comes to mind is how do you define the success of this trade?

Imagine, for a moment, that Panarin ignites the offense for a post-Olympic surge and leads the Kings to the playoffs. Would the trade be judged a big win if he merely gets them into postseason play? How would it be rated if they exit early, as they’ve done against Edmonton in the first round in each of the previous four seasons? Would that really be progress? And what if they miss the playoffs?

By now Holland, who was fooled by the team’s 105-point performance last season into thinking he wouldn’t have to change much this season, has to be more of a realist about what they’re lacking. But having Panarin on the roster could help Holland lure impactful free agents this summer, players who could take the offense to another level.

The Kings are fortunate that the Pacific division has been mediocre this season, keeping so many teams within a tight pack. The loser point has kept them in the playoff scramble, as it has for Vegas. At 23-18-14, the Kings have lost 32 of their 55 games this season. They’ve won in regulation only 14 times, potentially a problem because when teams are even in points and games played, regulation wins is the first tiebreaker. All those blown third-period leads could cost them a playoff spot. San Jose has lost three straight and is 4-5-1 in its past 10. The Oilers have lost three straight and are 5-5-0 in their last 10. Vegas is 3-5-2 in its past 10. Only the Ducks, 8-2-0 in their last 10, have thrived lately.

Okay, one more point I’d like to throw out there: if the Panarin-fueled Kings make the playoffs (and go past the first round), it’s easy to envision Holland bringing Hiller back next season. The Kings have had a few slumps that created openings for Holland to fire Hiller, but Holland never seemed inclined to make a change. As long as they’re close to a playoff spot, something drastic would have to happen for Holland to fire him this season.

It’s too bad the Olympic break is about to start, because it would have been interesting to get a quick answer on how Panarin will fit in with the Kings. Holland said rather than throw him in on Thursday, after a week of not skating, they agreed to be patient and have him join the team for its first post-Olympic practice, on Feb. 18. That will give Panarin a week to get accustomed to his teammates before play resumes, and them to him.

So we’ll have to wait until then to see where he’s slotted and find out if Hiller will allow Panarin to shine his light on a team whose credibility rests on being able to find a path out of the one-and-done playoff darkness.