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Columbus Blue Jackets fans are worried about whether their team will be able to hang on to leading scorer and pending free agent Artemi Panarin.

A Columbus-based distillery/restaurant has come up with a tempting offer in an attempt to keep Panarin.

High Bank Distillery has a billboard near the Blue Jackets' workplace, Nationwide Arena, offering the Russian-born forward a lifetime supply of vodka if he re-signs.

Panarin is in the final year of a two-year, $12 million extension that he signed when he was with the Chicago Blackhawks. The Blackhawks, afraid they would be unable to sign him long-term, traded him to the Blue Jackets in June 2017 in what has become a lopsided deal.

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Panarin has scored 127 points over the last season-and-a-half since the trade, ranking 18th in the league during that period. He has 45 points in 40 games this season.

Needless to say, his next deal will be worth much more than $6 million a year, and the Blue Jackets also have to re-sign star goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.

In September, Panarin released a statement, leaving open how he would handle his pending free agency next summer.

Help us on our crusade to help keep @9Artemi in Columbus! #StayThirstyPanarin pic.twitter.com/eBfbG0rHyk — High Bank Distillery (@HighBankDistill) January 9, 2019

"I was welcomed here with open arms by pretty much everyone in the organization, the fans and, you know, the fans love me and I love the fans," he said. "I want people to understand that it's not often that a player really has the opportunity to kind of decide the future, so I'm going to take the time to decide."

No word on whether the distillery's offer might sway him, but he did spot the billboard.

"Columbus, you keep amazing me," Panarin wrote on his Instagram account. "Thank you for your brilliance. Now I have a new spot to dine at."

Panarin is nicknamed Bread Man, a play on words from then-Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville on the similarity of his last name to the bakery chain.

Panera might have to step up, too, with a lifetime offer.

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