How does scratching Panarin solve any problems?

well he shouldn't be on the team. Scratching him he would be open to be traded. Just tried of seeing him going home with all that money and excuses each offseason. He shaved his head to response to him disappearing in the playoffs. Yeah that is how you get better at playing hockey?

and would open up roster spots for Laffy, Chytil and Kakko. + cap
and he is a diva only will play with certain players.
and I'm tired of him.

I've made the same arguments as you regarding Artemi. It's to incent him to leave. Buring his salary and sending him to Hartford would do nicely.

In addition, let's look at some facts:

For openers Panarin has never won a cup. There are plenty of 30 goal scorers who can be had for far less. He is, no doubt, a terrific playmaker. And at 173 lbs. he can easily be "pushed" aside. Something like what Vegas did to the Panters in the Cup final. If you don't believe me, take a look at is playoff stats on Yahoo. Here is what you will find:

GAMES PLAYED 57
GOALS 16
ASSISTS 30
POINTS 46
PLUS/MINUS -16

That means he is on the ice when 62 opponent goals that were scored in 57 games.

And his contract. God awful. Who was the idiot who agreed that a buyout of Artemi's contract in his final year would reduce his CAP hit by $300K to a meager $11.35M. Must have been a summa cum laude graduate of the Glen Sather School of Hockey General Management.

My goal is the same as yours, to trade him. I have other candidates as well.

I remember the argument made by NYR management "he haven't played that much in the NHL so we believe that contract will age well". This is not how you rebuild
I think he was 27 when they signed him to that awful 11.6 M contract. I hope Laviolette can give Breadman some of the Kuznetsov treatment.

My point with the comment was that you kept his salary in the roster and you don't even come close to replacing the 90+ points he gives the team.

yeah to force him out. I don't think he will take long on the bench before he request to move. And that 90 + scorer is sinking this team. That is a lot of money for those points. And it is not like he is good for anything else. It is appalling, it is clear in my mind that they aren't being delusional and think they are a contender anymore. Now it is a clean old garbage and do it smart way that is on the agenda.

I agree. We move him even at 50% retained and it solves our issues of cap space and a top 6 spot for Laf.

We can sell him to a team like Arizona and say he is full of spite and wants to prove himself and so on. I don't think we need too retain, just don't expect too much coming back.
These bottom teams sells more tickets while the team become more fun to watch etc.