Artemi Panarin voted Rangers MVP, Good Guy by media; teammates select Sam Carrick as Players’ Player
Artemi Panarin, the New York Rangers’ top scorer for the sixth consecutive season, was voted as the team’s most valuable player for 2024-25 by the local chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association. Panarin was also voted winner of the Good Guy Award by the local PHWA chapter.
Center Sam Carrick, who has played in a career-high 79 games after signing with the Rangers as a free agent last summer, was voted by his teammates as winner of the Players’ Player Award, recognizing his drive and teamwork.
All three awards were announced Wednesday, when the Rangers held their final off-day practice before ending the season against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Madison Square Garden on Thursday.
Panarin, who signed a seven-year contract with the Rangers on July 1, 2019, has 550 points (186 goals, 364 assists) in the 429 games he’s played since joining the organization. That includes his team-leading totals of 37 goals and 89 points this season; no other player who has spent the whole season with the Rangers has more than 25 goals (Vincent Trocheck) or 61 points (Adam Fox).
“I think Panarin’s (award) probably speaks for itself,” coach Peter Laviolette said after practice Wednesday. “You can see it in the way he plays the game, that the impact he has on the game is important to this team.”
The 33-year-old needs one point in New York’s season finale to reach the 90-point mark for the fifth time in six seasons with the Blueshirts; the only time he didn’t came in the 56-game COVID-shortened 2020-21 season, when he had 58 points in 42 games.
Panarin had career highs of 49 goals and 120 points last season, when he was voted to the NHL First All-Star Team for the second time in his career; the other was in 2019-20. He’s also been a Second-Team All-Star twice, in 2016-17 and 2022-23.
“He put up his best year last year. He had the most goals he’s ever scored last year, and he came back this year with the second-most goals he’s ever scored,” Laviolette said. “Down the stretch when the games were on the line and the season was on the line, he’s out there trying to be that impact (player) for our team to push us past the line. Good on him.”
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Sam Carrick recognized by teammates for solid first season with Rangers
Carrick joined the Rangers after playing with the Anaheim Ducks and Edmonton Oilers in 2023-24.
The 33-year-old established career-highs in assists (14) and points (20). He’s averaging 11:54 of ice time, while being used mostly in a fourth-line role and as a penalty killer. But he’s been bumped up in the lineup on occasion – most notably on Jan. 9, when Laviolette used him during 3-on-3 overtime against the New Jersey Devils and he scored the game-winning goal in a 3-2 victory at the Garden – putting the puck in the net after stealing it from star center Jack Hughes.
It was a special moment for Carrick, whose family members admitted afterward that they were surprised to see him on the ice in overtime.
The honor is a well-earned one for Carrick, who was selected by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the fifth round (No. 144) of the 2010 NHL Draft; the Rangers, who signed him to a three-year contract on July 1, 2024, are the NHL fourth team he has played for.
“It couldn’t have been to a better guy, a better person,” Laviolette said. “The way he carries himself and handles himself in the locker room, what he does for the team out on the ice. He plays a physical game. He’ll go out there and stick up for any one of his teammates in a split second. He plays hard consistently.”
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