Access the Rangers beat like never before
Join Post Sports+ for exciting member-only features, including real-time texting with Mollie Walker about the inside buzz on the Rangers.
Right through the final day of the Rangers’ terrible, horrible, no good, very bad season, the off-ice issues were a constant.
The Athletic reported Thursday morning that Artemi Panarin and Madison Square Garden reached settlements with a former Rangers employee after she accused the star Blueshirts player of sexual assault in December 2023.
There is no record of the woman reporting the alleged incident to law enforcement, according to the report.
She also reported it to the team three months later, when she was under investigation for a separate incident that concerned her sharing unauthorized anti-anxiety medication with a player.
The agreements reportedly include a nondisclosure agreement and no admission of wrongdoing clauses.
It’s just the latest negative headline to hover over the Blueshirts in a season that has been chock full of them.
Asked what it’s been like to navigate this campaign amid all of it, head coach Peter Laviolette deferred to another time.
“Those are probably questions for another day. It’s still game day,” Laviolette said Thursday morning before the Rangers beat the Lightning, 4-0, at Madison Square Garden. “We got one game left here. We got to focus on that. That’s not going to change our place in life, the game tonight. But you’re going to leave the rink here feeling like you worked hard, like you competed and you did the right things, and you end on a win in front of our fans in our building. Or, you don’t check those boxes. Right now, we’re just focused on that.”
And so the everlasting memory of the 2024-25 campaign will be the handful of fans at the Garden on Thursday night wearing bags over their heads.
The season seemed doomed since last summer, when the Rangers circumvented Barclay Goodrow’s no-trade list and waived him in a prearranged deal with the Sharks. The treatment of their alternate captain was poorly received among players in the Rangers locker room.
It turned out to be only a footnote in the offseason, which was dominated by Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury looking to move on from Jacob Trouba and the now ex-captain resisting the trade in the name of his family.
“It was just a big surprise,” Goodrow said before his return to the Garden with San Jose on Nov. 14. “I was never given any inclination or whatever that I wouldn’t be back with the team and that happened.”
Tensions with Trouba were apparent going into the season. On the eve of the season opener, however, news leaked that Igor Shesterkin declined an eight-year, $88 million contract.
Garden reached settlements with a former Blueshirts employee after she accused
the star player of sexual assault in December 2023. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
Shesterkin ultimately signed an extension Dec. 6 that made him the highest-paid goalie in NHL history on an eight-year, $92 million contract, but it was certainly a distraction going into Game 1 of 82.
Underwhelming performances and a lack of investment from the team led to Drury’s league-wide memo soliciting trade partners for several players but specifically Trouba and the Rangers’ longest-tenured player, Chris Kreider.
That leaked, too, of course. The Rangers responded by going 4-13, with all games ending in regulation.
Faced with being put on waivers, Trouba accepted a trade to Anaheim on Dec. 6 to put an end to a saga that had been a presence in the room all season up until that point.
“It’s a rite of passage to get fired by MSG,” he quipped in his introductory press conference with the Ducks.
Just three days later, Senators owner Michael Andlauer accused the Rangers of “soft tampering” via The Athletic in response to The Post’s report about the organization’s interest in Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk.
From there, one by one, player after player in the Rangers locker room had something to say about the way their season had gone.
Kaapo Kakko was the first to express his frustration with the third healthy scratch of his NHL career after two Rangers coaches (Gerard Gallant and Laviolette) had benched him in both Game 6s of the Eastern Conference Final they played in two of the last three seasons.
“I think it’s just easy to pick a young guy and boot him out,” the Finn said at the time, before he was shipped to Seattle the next day. “That’s how I feel, to be honest.”
Then Zac Jones said he felt like he was “rotting away” after running into his usual stretch of healthy scratches this season.
Jimmy Vesey later said he was “dying” while having “no role or purpose on this team” before he was traded to Colorado.
The most recent player to speak out was Calvin de Haan, whose frustrations boiled over in the wake of 19 straight healthy scratches. The veteran defenseman was part of the return from the Avalanche in exchange for Vesey and Ryan Lindgren at the trade deadline.
“I still think, even after this season, I know what this team is capable of,” Vincent Trocheck said Thursday night. “We saw it last year.”