Artemi Panarin apparently has his eyes set on the Big Apple.

The Russian forward reportedly told the Columbus Blue Jackets in June that he wasn't ready to negotiate a contract extension, forcing the club to begin testing the market for its leading point producer. Now, sources have told The Athletic's Aaron Portzline that the New York Rangers are Panarin's first choice.

The 26-year-old has one year left on his deal which carries a $6-million cap hit. He doesn't have a no-trade clause, and any interested team would likely have plans to sign him to a long-term extension.

The Rangers, New York Islanders, Los Angeles Kings, Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers, and Dallas Stars were all on Panarin's list of preferred destinations at the draft, Portzline notes.

The Jackets have fielded offers for Panarin, but most packages have contained high draft picks and prospects - neither of which would help the team's chances of returning to the playoffs.

Acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks last summer in a deal involving Brandon Saad, Panarin went on to post a career-high 82 points during his first season in Columbus.

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More than two years after being traded to the Nashville Predators in one of the most shocking trades of the past decade, P.K. Subban is still reminded about a promise he made on his draft day.

While speaking to reporters in Montreal at his annual gala for the P.K. Subban Foundation on Thursday, the 29-year-old admitted he's still upset about not winning the Stanley Cup during his time with the Montreal Canadiens.

"What I'm upset about, and at the time what I was upset about, is I made a promise to the city when I was drafted to bring a Stanley Cup back and never once did I remove myself from that statement or back away from it," Subban said. "The frustrating thing is I thought we had the right core to do that, it just seemed like we were never able to put the best team on the ice and it never happened for us."

Subban added that he's enjoying his time in Nashville. He's come closer to a championship with the Predators than he did during his six seasons with the Canadiens, reaching the Stanley Cup Final in 2017.

He's now keen on bringing the Stanley Cup to his new home.

"Montreal is a great place to win in if you can win here and I felt I wanted to do that. But at the same token I got put into a really good position with an amazing city that I love so much, amazing teammates I wouldn't trade any of them for anyone, they're great guys, and I believe we have a real chance to win there and bring the first Stanley Cup back to Nashville," Subban said.

The Predators are coming off a strong 2017-18 season that saw the club capture its first-ever Presidents' Trophy. Subban posted a career-high 16 goals and 59 points while playing in all 82 games.

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The Calgary Flames and defenseman Noah Hanifin are putting the final touches on a contract extension, according to TSN's Darren Dreger.

Hanifin, a restricted free agent, said last week that he's "super close" to a deal with the club, and now an extension appears imminent.

The 21-year-old blue-liner was acquired from the Carolina Hurricanes this summer along with Elias Lindholm in exchange for Dougie Hamilton, Micheal Ferland, and Adam Fox.

Lindholm, who was also an RFA at the time of the trade, later agreed to a six-year deal with the Flames averaging $4.85 million annually.

Hanifin, the fifth overall pick in 2015, recorded new career single-season highs with 10 goals and 32 points last season.

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NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is set to be inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame as part of the 2018 class.

Bettman joins a list of 11 professionals to be enshrined in December, which will also feature Jim Nantz, Bob Costas, and Dick Vitale, among others.

Over his time as commissioner, Bettman has orchestrated multi-billion dollar deals with NBC Sports and Rogers Communications and helped create the NHL Network.

Bettman was also named as an inductee to the Hockey Hall of Fame in June.

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Following wrist, groin, and two hernia surgeries this offseason, Calgary Flames pivot Sean Monahan is feeling good as the NHL season inches closer.

"I feel like a new man right now," Monahan told Aaron Vickers of NHL.com. "I'm more flexible, more mobile, meaner and stronger, so I think it's a good feeling to be healthy."

With the Flames out of the playoff picture late last season, Monahan was shut down after 74 games to get an early start on his recovery. Despite limited appearances, the 23-year-old matched his career best with 31 goals and set a new personal points benchmark in 2017-18.

Monahan's health will be paramount to the new-look Flames as they seek a return to the postseason in 2018-19. Over the offseason, Calgary brought in Bill Peters as its new head coach, orchestrated a blockbuster that sent out Dougie Hamilton for Noah Hanifin, and signed perennial 20-goal sniper James Neal, who could find his way onto Monahan's line alongside Johnny Gaudreau.

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If there is any confusion about Max Pacioretty's long-term aspirations, his agent, Allan Walsh, is attempting to set the record straight.

Walsh's comments come just two days after the Montreal Canadiens captain confirmed he and the team are not discussing an extension.

Pacioretty signed on with Walsh this summer after mutually parting ways with former representative Pat Brisson.

As Walsh indicates, the Habs have attempted to trade Pacioretty, but a deal with the Los Angeles Kings may not have been the only move that ultimately fell through. The team also reportedly had a three-way trade in place at the draft which would have shipped Pacioretty to the New York Islanders.

The 29-year-old can become an unrestricted free agent next summer.

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It's no secret that the Philadelphia Flyers' penalty kill could use a bit of a boost.

After finishing with a 75.8 percent kill rate last season - third-worst in the NHL - the Flyers are seeking a new face to add to their scheme when down a man.

"I'm open to it, but it would probably be more of a lateral move on the market rather than a free agent," Flyers general manager Ron Hextall told Dave Isaac of the Cherry Hill Courier-Post. "It would be a forward. We'd like to add a penalty-killing forward but to this point there's been nothing there that's made enough sense for us to move."

Philadelphia did improve on the penalty kill in the late stages of last season - 78.6 percent after Feb. 1, good for 19th in the NHL.

"If we have the same personnel, we have to be the entire year like we were the last 25 games. We can't be at the bottom of the league," Hextall said. "We saw signs at the end of the year, which is why I feel some comfort right now.

"Do I feel total comfort? No, I don't. We finished bottom three in the league and that's not good enough. Again, the players that we have, have to be better."

Head coach Dave Hakstol is entering his fourth season with the Flyers. During his tenure, the team has made fewer trips to the penalty box each season, only to watch its performance on the penalty kill also decline:

With those numbers, it's understandable for Hextall to be open to tweaking his lineup.

Still, it wasn't an offseason of fireworks in Philadelphia, as the team recruited James van Riemsdyk and defenseman Christian Folin, but neither acquisition is a penalty-kill specialist. Van Riemsdyk saw less than two minutes total on the penalty kill over 81 games with Toronto, while Folin's 1:05 average ice time while shorthanded ranked fifth among Los Angeles blue-liners.

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TORONTO - The salary cap-era St. Louis Blues have been just kinda there.

They've found plenty of success, of course, accumulating more than 80 points in 10 of 12 non-lockout seasons. They made the playoffs every year from 2012 to 2017, and, in Ken Hitchcock's final full campaign behind the bench, were two wins away from competing for the 2016 Stanley Cup.

Through it all, though, they've rarely generated widespread excitement. Rarely rocked the boat. Rarely struck fear into opponents across the NHL.

Then, the 2018 offseason came and went, and the perception changed.

General manager Doug Armstrong remodeled up front this summer by acquiring Ryan O'Reilly, David Perron, Patrick Maroon, and Tyler Bozak, and trading away Patrik Berglund, Vladimir Sobotka, and Tage Thompson.

The forward group won't be required to carry the Blues moving forward - captain Alex Pietrangelo and the defense corps, as well as goalies Jake Allen and Chad Johnson, have jobs to do too - but it will be the straw that stirs the drink in St. Louis.

On an individual level, O'Reilly and winger Robby Fabbri, who hasn't appeared in an NHL game since February 2017, are both viewing the 2018-19 season as a fresh start. And, quite possibly, the start of something special for the Blues.

O'Reilly's recharge

Back in April, as he addressed Buffalo media on locker room cleanout day, O'Reilly opened up about having "lost the love of the game multiple times" over the course of the '17-18 season.

His remarks, linked strongly to the painstakingly slow Sabres rebuild, stopped media and fans in their tracks. It was the type of honesty we rarely see from public figures. (It turns out pro athletes can be vulnerable too. Huh.)

A much cheerier O'Reilly revisited the topic Tuesday at the annual BioSteel Camp.

"It was tough," he said, referring to the last of his three seasons in Western New York. "You still love what you do, and there's no better feeling than playing a hockey game - it's the best job in the world - but, at times during the season, it was draining. You don't want to think about the game because it's just not going well. And it took a toll at different times of the year. There were times that year that we started to get things going and you love it. Winning's fun. Losing is not fun at all."

Not surprisingly, O'Reilly welcomed the move to Missouri and is enjoying coming to the rink every day again. "They missed the playoffs by one game. They're close, they're on the verge of something great," he said. "Getting to add to that was pure excitement."

The 27-year-old is penciled in as the Blues' No. 1 center next to super sniper Vladimir Tarasenko. Not a bad landing spot for a guy whose contract (another four years at $7.5 million per season) isn't easy to move.

"He's one of the best scorers in the game," O'Reilly said of Tarasenko, the eagerness evident in his voice. "If it works out, I think it'll be awesome. I use my stick a lot to create turnovers and he's that guy that is always in the right area, in the scoring areas."

Tarasenko has scored 37, 40, 39, and 33 goals the past four seasons. Alongside a cerebral, faceoff-winning machine like O'Reilly, the Russian could conceivably bag somewhere in the neighborhood of 45 in '18-19. That trademark shot does a lot of the work.

"You see how he gets behind it, how he puts everything into it," O'Reilly said. "You see the release of it, the quickness and just the heaviness of it. Not many goalies stand a chance, and (he has) pinpoint accuracy. It is one of the best shots in the league."

Head coach Mike Yeo will have training camp to experiment beyond the logical O'Reilly-Tarasenko and Schwartz-Schenn duos. Here's an educated guess of the Blues' top three lines to start the year:

That's a balanced and potent unit that will drive opponents nuts for 50 minutes a night. (It's still August - forget about the fourth line.)

There's also the chance Robert Thomas, a high-end prospect from the OHL's Hamilton Bulldogs, makes the big club out of camp. He's regarded as a future first- or second-line NHL center but could easily slot in on the wing somewhere in the top nine.

Any way you slice it (there's a case to be made for prospect Jordan Kyrou, 20, stealing a spot too), what was largely a one-line attack last year is now thorough.

That's a necessary step for the Blues, because the Central Division is a house of horrors. They needed this infusion to compete with the Jets, Predators, Stars, and the like.

Fabbri's effect

Of the 15 forwards the Blues have signed for this coming season, eight are in a contract year. Fabbri, a true wild card, is in that show-me group.

The 2014 first-rounder is returning from a pair of surgeries on his left knee. He tore his ACL during the 123rd game of his career and has been sidelined since, suffering the same injury last fall. The fearless speedster missed the entire season, moving back home to Toronto last December for rehab.

"I've done a good job keeping a positive mindset through this whole thing," Fabbri said Tuesday. "Not too many people get 10 months to train and prepare for a season, so that's the way I looked at it. Not only rehabbing my knee, (but also) fixing the imbalances and fixing the little things on and off the ice. It has helped. I never really got down about it. The situation's kinda tough, but stuff happens and you can't fix that."

"I feel 100 percent," he added. "You can't really mimic the stresses of a season - back-to-back games and things like that - but if you ask me right now, yeah, I feel if not 100, 99 (percent)."

(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)

The cynical take: Fabbri may have durability issues.

Fabbri, who has also suffered a concussion and a high ankle sprain in recent years, said the club told him to "come in and prove myself again," promising nothing in the wake of such a long layoff and the signing of a one-year, $925,000 contract. In general, will that knee hold up?

The optimistic take: Fabbri may be on the verge of breaking out.

There's no denying the 22-year-old's immense potential when healthy. He hasn't truly found his footing in the NHL, but, based on his pre-draft stock and flashes of brilliance, could blossom into a top-six mainstay who contributes 50-60 points a season. The club's 30th-ranked power play certainly needs a boost.

You could play the same game with St. Louis.

The cynical take: Same old Blues.

The optimistic take: Brand new Blues.

John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer. You can find him on Twitter @matiszjohn.

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