After hearing what Artemi Panarin had to say after last night’s game, maybe the Chicago Blackhawks could have kept him after all. A lot of people see the big contract he has and says “we couldn’t afford him”, which is true. If Panarin wanted to stay with Patrick Kane, he would have taken a pay cut. That’s something he talked about last night.
If he was never traded, the Blackhawks could have paid him $8,000,000 AAV now. It would be a tight cap crunch, but it could have worked. Of course, now they can’t afford him.