Don't worry, Rangers fans, Artemi Panarin isn't going anywhere.
Despite the severe uncertainty in professional sports over when the games will resume amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rangers superstar winger made it clear he was just joking when he said he'd return home to Russia to play in the KHL if the
“Of course I was kidding,” Panarin said via text message in an article published in the New York Post via long-time writer Larry Brooks.
Russian publication Sport.RU quoted Panarin in an article after he joked on an Instagram Live video with Aleksandr Kerzhakov, a legendary Russian soccer player who is now the head coach of the country's U-18 team.
Via Google Translate, Panarin supposedly joked about how he'd leave if he was forced to take a pay cut after the coach explained professional soccer players in Russia would likely have to take a 40%-60% paycut going forward.
"If from 40% to 60%, then why am I doing this at all? Then I will probably skip the next year."
Context and tone can easily be lost in translation and it appears to be the case here.
Panarin signed a seven-year, $81.5 Million contract on July 1, 2019 and would have to forfeit up to "35 percent of his $14 million 2019-20 pay to escrow if the season does not resume," which amounts to $4,900,000.
(h/t Larry Brooks/New York Post)
