Maple Leafs quiet as Kings land Artemi Panarin before freeze

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One deadline down, one to go.

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It’s now the National Hockey League trade deadline on March 6 to which we turn our full attention after little was done prior to the Winter Olympic trade freeze, which hit at 3 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

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There wasn’t a big chance of anything being done by the Maple Leafs and, if you’re wondering what Toronto could get for any of Bobby McMann, Scott Laughton or Oliver Ekman-Larsson, among others, you’re going to have to wait.

The freeze will be thawed out at 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 22. From there, teams will have less than two weeks to figure out what they want to do before that choice becomes moot on the first Friday in March.

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One big piece of continuing speculation became reality on Wednesday afternoon.

Rangers trade Panarin to Kings

Forward Artemi Panarin, on the block for weeks, was acquired by the Los Angeles Kings from the New York Rangers for forward prospect Liam Greentree, a conditional third-round pick in 2026 and a conditional fourth-round pick in 2028. The Rangers retained 50% of Panarin’s contract.

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The trade comes weeks after the Rangers told Panarin, a vital star for the club for the past seven seasons, that they would not re-sign him before he was slated to hit free agency this summer.

Panarin reportedly has agreed to a two-year, $11-million US pact with the Kings.

Panarin had 57 points (19 goals and 38 assists) in 52 games for the Rangers before they sat him out in anticipation of a trade and he should provide an offensive punch for a Kings team that sorely needs one.

Los Angeles was a point out of the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference on Wednesday afternoon and had 143 goals in total, the second-fewest in the NHL.

Also on Wednesday, the New Jersey Devils acquired centre Nick Bjugstad from the St. Louis Blues for minor-league forward Thomas Bordeleau and a conditional fourth-round draft pick in 2026.

What about those Leafs?

As for the Leafs, we’re in the group that thinks the three-game winning streak heading into the break amounts to fool’s gold.

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The Leafs managed to win in Calgary and Edmonton despite being outplayed in both games, getting them to within five points of the second wild-card berth in the Eastern Conference before games on Wednesday night.

A Boston Bruins win against the Florida Panthers would put the Leafs seven points out.

The Washington Capitals and Columbus Blue Jackets, like the Leafs, were sitting with 63 points. The Caps and Jackets each had one game remaining before the break.

The Leafs have allowed an NHL-high 142 goals at five-on-five and in giving up an average of 3.39 goals a game, were better than only five teams in that regard. Toronto had allowed an average of 31.6 shots a game, the highest in the NHL.

The point is: that the Leafs are not good defensively and, if they don’t get good goaltending to plug the holes, they’re unlikely to win.

Expecting them to win 15 of their final 25 games — which would get them to at least 93 points — is asking for a lot. We haven’t seen evidence the Leafs are capable of being a lot better in front of Anthony Stolarz or Joseph Woll, certainly not enough to make a run at a playoff berth.

So, as we’ve said in recent weeks, it’s the responsibility of general manager Brad Treliving become a seller and explore what kind of returns he could get for any of McMann, Laughton, Ekman-Larsson, Carlo, Simon Benoit, Matias Maccelli or Max Domi.

For someone such as McMann, a first-round pick could be the price.

We don’t expect Treliving to make six or seven trades. He can’t leave many stones unturned, though, as the Leafs need some sort of cupboard stockpiling for the future.

tkoshan@postmedia.com

X: @koshtorontosun

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