The future hockey player was born on October 30, 91 in the small mining town of Korkino, located in the Chelyabinsk region. At the age of three months, the parents of Artemi Panarin, then aged 20, separated and the boy found himself in the custody of his grandparents. Her grandmother Nina Stepanovna worked as a seamstress, and her husband, Vladimir Ilyich, was a former miner and hockey player. At that time, in a small town, associating with bad company was no small task, and to protect the boy from the pernicious influence of the streets, the grandfather takes his grandson to hockey. He practiced this sport in the distant past.

At first, Artemi wasn’t enthusiastic about coming to practice and often ignored them, citing various excuses. The boy loved hockey and was ready to play it until exhaustion. However, his family was poor and could not afford new modern equipment. The young hockey player came to train on everything that came to hand.

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Poverty and the first steps

The boy’s first pairs of skates were purchased for figure skating. It wasn’t until some time later that his grandfather received a pair of hockey boots, which were much bigger. Artemi had to wear them over his usual shoes. Additionally, he was given a pair of worn handcuffs, carried to a hole in his palm, where his grandfather had carefully inserted leather patches, cut from old boots.

The athlete’s attire consisted of used clothes that his grandfather had brought and his grandmother had adapted them to the size of his grandson. The future hockey player began skating at the local stadium in Korkino. However, later Vladimir Ilyich had to take his grandson to train at the Chelyabinsk Hockey School, along with the tractor. Six days a week, the grandfather had to travel a long way from home to the sports arena in an old rusty UAZ.

To be fair, several years later, Panarin looks back on those times with a smile on his face. After all, unlike guys who mostly achieved nothing, Artemi has become a professional hockey player who shows his skills in international tournaments in the uniform of the Russian national team and on the ice of the National League hockey.

Junior and youth hockey

Panarin played in the children’s team of Traktor from 1998 to 2003. Then, for reasons unknown to the athlete, he was cut off and sent to a lower class team, Sign. At this time, Artemi gave up hope and already wanted to give up everything, however, thanks to his grandfather, he was accepted into the Vityaz school. At the new location, technicians discerned in the boy what he had lost in Chelyabinsk, giving him a set of new skates and equipment.

Panarin spent four years at the Podolsk club school. Then the young 17-year-old hockey player goes straight to the KHL Vityaz hockey club, where in the 2008-2009 rookie season he plays five games and gets one assist.

KHL and other merits

In the following 2009-10 season, Panarin got a lot more practice. In 20 games played by the Knights, the player stood out with one record and eight assists. However, the results of the promising hockey player did not impress the coaching staff. The management sent Artemi to gain experience in the Russian youth team of MHL Vityazi, in which in 38 games in the 2009-10 season the hockey player scored 44 points, 20 goals and 24 passes.

Panarin again played for two teams in the 2010–11 season. In the KHL, the player plays 40 games for Vityaz, during which he scored 21 points. In the MHL, Artemi appeared in 13 games for the Russian Knights and scored 17 points. Also, as a member of the Russian youth team, Panarin will go to the 2011 Youth World Championship in the United States. The Russian team had a very difficult group stage.

With two wins and two losses, the Russian team went from third place in the group to the final, where in the first round they beat the Finnish national team 4:3. Then, in the match for the final, Russian hockey players took revenge on the Swedish team with the score 4:3. In the main match of the tournament, the teams of Russia and Canada faced each other. In a tough match that would later be called a miracle on ice, the Russian team snatched the gold medals, beating the Canadians by 5:3. The striker played for the national team in all seven games of the tournament, winning a total of five points.

Despite the success on the international stage, the hockey player’s career at the club was a mess. After starting the 2011-12 season for Vityazi, the athlete was charged with Ak Bars on January 11, 2012. However, Artemi did not stay at the Kazan club for long, playing for the new club for 12 games and scoring five dots. After that, the player returned to Vityaz at the end of the season, where he played 38 games for the club in the 2011-12 season, scoring 26.

The hockey player restarted the 2012-13 season in Podolsk, playing 40 games for Vityazi, where he scored 18 points. In 2013, Panarin went to SKA St. Petersburg. With the St. Petersburg club, Artemi plays three games in the regular season, where he noticed one assist, and also took part in the Gagarin Cup. In the playoffs, for SKA, he played in 14 games and scored nine points. After moving to a new club, things went downhill for Panarin. In his first full season with SKA, the player played 51 games and racked up 40 points.

The following season becomes an exceptional season for Panarin. In 54 games, the player earns a record 62 points. In 2015, the Army Sports Club won the Gagarin Cup. The striker has scored 20 points in 20 play-off matches. Also in 2015, the hockey player takes part in the Russian national team at the World Championships in the Czech Republic.

The team left the group without any problems and beat the Swedes and the Americans in the quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively. The Russians faltered in those games as they lost the last game against the Canadians for all reasons, with a score of 1-6. Panarin appeared on the ice in ten games in this tournament, where they scored ten points.

The NHL and the first prizes

After a successful season, Artemi signs a rookie contract with Chicago. The coaching staff immediately trusted Panarin to play alongside club star Kane. Panarin scored in his first game in the National Hockey League.

It wasn’t a bad start, but the forward didn’t stop there and scored his first NHL hat trick a few months later. In his first season in the best league in the world, the striker appeared on the ice in 80 games, where he scored 77 points. The Russian also participated in the Stanley Cup, where he scored seven points in seven games. At the end of the 2015-16 season, the 24-year-old won the league’s top signing award.

At the next world championship in 2016, which was held in the player’s home country, the Russian national team did slightly worse than at the previous tournament. Coming out of the group in second place, the Russians easily beat Germany 4-1 in the first round.

However, at one stage of the final, our athletes had to face a difficult defense of the Finns, who ended up beating Russia by 3:1. In the consolation final, the national team beat the Americans 7:2 without a chance. Panarin played in all ten games, like last year, and set a personal best in points for the tournament. The hockey player managed to earn 15 points. Also, the hockey player took part in the World Cup, where he and his team ran out of medals.

The 2016-17 season was less productive for the striker than the previous one. Artemi scored 74 points in 82 games for Chicago. Moreover, the striker has played in four repechage games, registering only one assist. At the next World Cup, which was held in Germany and France in 2017, the Russian team again won bronze.

The Panarin is marketed in Columbus in the new season. Artemi’s first season for the Blue Jackets was productive. In 81 games, the striker managed to collect 82 assists.

During the 2018-19 season, the Russian forward performed even better in seventy-nine NHL regular season games, he managed to amass 87 points, 28 goals and 59 assists. Also in ten games played in the final, he produced 11 assists with five goals and six assists.

Prior to the start of the 2019-20 season, the player became the most tricky and unrestricted free agent in the NHL. After negotiating with several clubs, the Russian chose the New York Rangers, with whom he signed a very large contract for seven years and a total amount of 81.5 million dollars.

Thus, the poor boy from a remote village in the middle of nowhere in Russia became the highest paid Russian hockey player in the NHL. Artemi’s first season for his new club was very successful. Despite having a shorter season due to the pandemic, Panarin shone in scoring and managed to score 92 points for the season.

(Photo: Disclosure/NHL.com)