Now, there is everything.
The money and the fame. The infectious smile under the mop of chestnut hair. The fiancée and the dog posing on Instagram.
On the ice, it’s the overflowing talent, surpassing even the highest expectations. It’s the great goals and the better assists. It’s the small defensive plays and the puck protection. And it’s the leg-kick celebration, the waves to the crowd, gifting sticks over the boards.
Artemi Panarin is poised to become a star like so few Rangers have before him. He has the chance to hold the Big Apple in the palm of his hand. It is almost unimaginable considering where he came from — and what he had to do to get here.
“A million stories,” Rangers team president John Davidson told The Post. “It’s fascinating.”
Panarin would love to get his grandparents to a game at the Garden, but he doesn’t think it’s going to happen this year. They would have to get passports for travel, and Panarin isn’t ready to host them while still furnishing his newly purchased house in Greenwich, Conn. But it isn’t lost on the 28-year-old that it was their sacrifice, raising him since his parents broke up when he was 3 months old, that got him to where he is today.
But Manhattan is still a very long way from Korkino, Russia.
“I’m sure grandpa wants [to come], I’m not sure about grandma,” Panarin jokingly told The Post before the long four-game road trip ended in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Saturday night. “It’s a lot of flying for old guys.”
Artemi Panarin, wearing his World Junior Championships medal, with his grandfather Vladimir Levin. (Panarin family photo)Korkino is a mining town of about 40,000 people, more than 1,000 miles east of Moscow, near the northern border of Kazakhstan. It was 1992, just months after the fall of the Soviet Union, when Panarin was adopted by his grandparents, Vladimir and Nina Levin.
As he first told the story to The Athletic, there is a big difference between poor and poverty. Panarin had the essentials, but getting by wasn’t easy.
Vladimir was a celebrated hockey player but never made it out of Korkino, yet he wanted Artemi to play, and wanted him to make it out.
So Vladimir found discarded skates at the local rink that his grandson would fit into by wearing his sneakers inside them. Vladimir found gloves with holes in the palms and patched them with leather from old boots. Nina sewed together jerseys and retrofit the rest of the equipment to at least fit somewhat.
By the time Panarin was 8, he was practicing six days a week at an old rink in Chelyabinsk, just under an hour away. The other boys constantly made fun of his equipment and of Vladimir’s old car. If the car was broken, as it often was, Panarin would take the bus. Nina sewed a secret pocket into Panarin’s pants so would-be robbers couldn’t get the little money he had.
“I think he has great respect for who really helped him as a child,” Davidson said.
When Panarin was 13, he was cut from the top junior club in Chelyabinsk, and a friend’s father found a boarding school, Podolsk, in Moscow that is affiliated with a team in the country’s top pro league, the KHL. It was a two-day bus ride to get to Podolsk, but when Panarin showed up, he was fitted for new equipment. With new gloves for the first time in his life, Panarin could suddenly feel the puck. It was a revelation.
No idea I [would] play in the NHL five years ago, six years ago. I was thinking that I don’t have [a] chance at that. I wasn’t drafted. — Artemi Panarin
He spent four years at Podolsk, returning to Korkino in the summers. He made his KHL debut as a 17-year-old in 2008-09, but bounced back and forth from the top team, Chekhov Vityaz, to its second-tier club. The breakout came at the 2011 World Junior Championship in Buffalo, when his Russian team trailed Canada 3-0 in the gold-medal game. Panarin scored, Russia got two more, and then he got the game-winner with 4:38 left in regulation.
He remembered grabbing his sweater after that goal and screaming, “Korkino!”
Panarin went on to establish himself in the KHL, winning a championship with SKA St. Peterburg and drawing the attention of NHL clubs. He signed an entry-level deal with the Blackhawks in April 2015, and the dream was realized.
“No idea I [would] play in the NHL five years ago, six years ago,” Panarin said. “I was thinking that I don’t have [a] chance at that. I wasn’t drafted.”
He paused.
“So,” he said with a smile and a shrug, “good luck for me.”
When Panarin’s entry-level deal was up, the Blackhawks signed him to a two-year, $12 million deal, only to then make the foolish mistake of trading him to the Blue Jackets as part of the trade that brought back Brandon Saad. When it happened, Chicago winger Patrick Kane said he was “emotional” and “disappointed.” The Blue Jackets, run by Davidson at the time, were ecstatic.
“For me, he exceeded expectations in Columbus,” Davidson said. “He’s a great player, and he’s just as good a person. He’s a player that brings an entertainment value to the game along with getting the job done. There are not many players like that in sport, period, and in hockey, who can do that. It’s an intriguing package.”
Artemi Panarin with the Blackhawks in 2016.Paul J. BereswillPanarin was always appreciative of his time in Columbus, and Davidson did everything he could to keep Panarin from leaving after his deal was up after last season. But Panarin had been honest with the club from the start, explaining how he had his sights set on the bright lights of a big city. None bigger and brighter than New York.
So just after Davidson left to take over the Rangers, Panarin followed by signing a seven-year, $81.5 million deal. With so many of the Rangers’ previous free-agent signings having blown up in their face, there was a ton of pressure.
Panarin has started answering the expectations with one of the best statistical starts in franchise history, putting up 22 goals and 55 points through the first half of the season, which ended on a sour note with a third straight loss in Vancouver on Saturday. Panarin has immediately become a popular teammate and a respected leader. And he does it all with a smile.
“He’s been outstanding for us,” coach David Quinn said. “I actually asked him, ‘Is this the best hockey you’ve ever played?’ And he paused and pondered whether it had been. And he said, ‘Ah, not sure.’ He didn’t want to say that it has been the best hockey he’s ever played, but statistically, it seems that way.
“He always been a great player in this league, and right from the minute he got here. But he’s better than I thought he was going to be.”
Maybe the biggest beneficiary of Panarin’s arrival has been Ryan Strome, the 26-year-old who is set to be a restricted free agent and is putting together a career year while playing as Panarin’s center. Strome understands pure talent, too, having played parts of four years with John Tavares while with the Islanders and parts of two years with Connor McDavid in Edmonton. But playing as Panarin’s center has been something special.
“He’s got an unbelievable personality, and the guys completely love him,” Strome said. “He’s been super special for me, and this group.”
After one of his first preseason games, Panarin was chatting with a couple reporters, asking if his English was getting better. It was, he was told.
“Well,” he said, “I have seven years to get better.”
That is a promising thought for the Rangers, who already marvel at how hard he works, how dedicated he is to getting better, and his outright love for the game.
“Signing free agents is a tough business, generally it’s too many years and too much money. That’s just what it is,” Davidson said. “A lot of people had the question, ‘Is he coming to New York, or going to play for the Rangers?’ He’s more than answered that question. And we knew.
“He’s got the smile on the face, the twinkle in the eye — but he’s a competitor. He’s a big-time competitor.”
The Blueshirts also hope that he can help accelerate this rebuild — how can he not? — and turn them into a competitive team sooner rather than later. Panarin is already having a blast being a Ranger, but added, “There is room for more enjoyment.”
And to think of where it all started, to where he is now, to where it all might go — it’s nothing short of astounding.
“My life really changed in the last three, four years,” Panarin said. “It’s good. Very good.”
For more on the Rangers, listen to the latest episode of the “Up In The Blue Seats” podcast:


