When the Rangers first signed Artemi Panarin as a free agent in the summer of 2019, then-coach David Quinn said his immediate intention was to play Panarin on the same line as his top centerman, Mika Zibanejad. He did at the start of the season but soon decided it made better sense to split them up and play them on separate lines.
This fall, new coach Gerard Gallant said that while he intended to start with the two players on separate lines, at some point in the preseason he would experiment with the two on the same line for a game or two.