Sources: Artemi Panarin Believed to Have Avalanche on the List

Will Artemi Panarin seriously consider the Colorado Avalanche on Free-Agent Day, July 1st? Well, it just so happens I was talking to a couple of people who would be in a position to know on that very question, and this is what I came away believing when I hung up the phone:

Yes. Yes indeed. Yes, the Avs are on Panarin’s list of potential destinations when he becomes unrestricted on July 1.

Here’s why:

• Playing on the left side on a line with Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen? Oh yes, that would be a very attractive option for the Bread Man. Yeah, that probably means Gabe Landeskog becomes a second-liner, but he started doing that some in the playoffs and late in the regular season anyway, and no doubt the captain would welcome a player with the talent as considerable as Panarin to the roster. Or, maybe the Bread Man plays on the second line sometimes, depending on how the team is playing. Not that big a deal if it happened now and then.
• The Avs will have the money under the cap to spend. According to the awesome website Capfriendly, the Avs currently are a little more than $36 million under the cap for 2019-20. Granted, the Avs have several guys they need to re-sign as restricted free agents, and one of them is Rantanen. He’ll cost probably a minimum of $8 million per to sign, then there is Alexander Kerfoot, Nikita Zadorov and J.T. Compher to consider (I’m leaving out a couple of guys who are RFA too, guys like Vladislav Kamenev and Sven Andrighetto, but they aren’t likely to be guys who command at least $2 million a year like the aforementioned probably will).
• Panarin’s agent is Paul Theofanous, who is also Semyon Varlamov’s agent. Theofanous has been in the agent game a long time (he was the agent for guys like Valeri Kamensky, Sandis Ozolinsh and Alexei Gusarov back in the day). Theofanous knows just how great a city like Denver is to live (he went to the University of Denver as an undergrad) and no doubt he will be telling the Bread Man the virtues of coming here.

Of course, the Avs will have some very serious, very tough competition for Panarin’s services. The Florida Panthers seem to be on everyone’s list as the top contender, given that their new coach (Joel Quenneville) was his coach in Chicago to start his career, and that Florida is a no-income-tax state and that the Panthers have $22 million under the cap to spend.

Pretty much any team with $10 million-$15 million to spend is going to want to at least kick the tires on Panarin. He’s a premier offensive talent, a point-a-game guy and he’s only 27.

But the Avs are now, finally, a very attractive destination again for potential free agents. Players who sign here know they’ll not only have a good chance to win, but they’ll be well paid and live in a great city.

Assuming many teams can offer Artemi Panarin a contract that probably starts in the $10 million per range, it’ll all come down to the team and city he thinks is the best fit. The Avalanche would seemingly be a very nice fit. Doesn’t mean it’ll happen, of course. But I expect the Avs to make a very strong pitch and don’t forget, teams can start courting players at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday, June 23 – the so-called “tampering period.”

I definitely think Theofanous’ cell phone will ring at that time, one from a 303 area code.