Report sheds light on Artemi Panarin's next deal, and the Maple Leafs should be ready

When the New York Rangers decided they were going to retool this season, that meant that familiar faces were likely headed out the door, with many veterans on the trade block ahead of the deadline.

But the biggest name available is Artemi Panarin, and with him a pending free agent and not being offered an extension -- he could be in for a huge payday.

There's been talks about him making at least double-digit millions even at the age of 34, and with him still putting up elite numbers, there's good reason to believe he'll get paid.

A new report from Elliotte Friedman shows that Panarin certainly knows his worth, and that he also is betting on himself and his health.

On the 32 Thoughts podcast, Friedman explained that Panarin's belief in himself and his durability could lend to a much longer deal, as the veteran forward believes he still has a few good years left in him:

While Friedman is taking a stab in the dark, it's not too far off from what you can expect him to get paid, especially with a rising salary cap.

Though this means that for a team like the Maple Leafs, if they want to make a splash this summer then Panarin might just be too much of a commitment to do so.

The team already has a lot of money tied up in big contracts to Auston Matthews and William Nylander, but you're also going to be paying aging and oft-injured players like Chris Tanev and Anthony Stolarz plus you can't even begin to talk about Morgan Rielly's deal without some level of frustration.

So adding Panarin for four or five years at $10-million or more is pretty much a death sentence. If he regresses then you have yet another immovable deal that will reflect badly on management.

There's no denying that Panarin -- a player with 926 points in only 803 games -- wouldn't help Toronto overall, and his accomplishments and two-way ability on the ice is something that often gets overlooked among the bigger stars.

But whether or not they should handicap themselves with another terrible contract is a conversation the team needs to straight up avoid as they can't risk putting themselves in a worse hole than they already have.

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