Jake Deutsch
Photo Courtesy of Lohud.com
Since joining the Chicago Blackhawks during the 2015-16 season, Artemi Panarin has taken the league by storm. That year, he tallied 30 goals and 47 assists for a total of 77 points in 80 games, winning the Calder Memorial Trophy, which honors the NHL’s top rookie. Only three undrafted players have won the Calder since 1980 with Panarin being one of them.
In the years since, analysts and fans alike raised the question of how Panarin ‘fell through the cracks' during his draft-eligible years and was able to win such a prestigious award at the age of 24.
Panarin’s stats in his native Russia were very respectable. In his first draft-eligible season in Russia’s top league, the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), with Vityaz Chekhov, Panarin registered 21 points in 40 games. Over the next two seasons with the same club, he scored 44 points in 78 games. His true ‘breakout’ years occurred with SKA St. Petersburg, where he went a point-per-game (102 pts in 102 games played) in the regular season.
At this point in his career, Panarin was older than the average NHL draft pick, and drafting players of his age can be a risk. While his scoring in Russia was near-elite level for a player of his age, many scouts may have been anxious that his size and strength were not where they needed to be effective at the NHL level.
Historically, there has also been a ‘Russian factor’ that looms around the NHL, where teams tend to stray away from selecting Russians with top picks due to the risk of them not coming over to North America, since they could opt to continue playing in the KHL, along with the somewhat difficult transition to the North American style of hockey.
After going undrafted and signing a contract with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2015, Panarin went on to play two seasons with them, putting up 151 points in 162 games playing alongside fellow playmaker, Patrick Kane. He also sported a 54% Corsi For percentage at even strength.
Panarin with the Blackhawks in 2015. Source: blackhawkup.com
Corsi For/Against % is one of the most widely used analytics metrics in hockey, and it is calculated by summing all shots, blocked shots against, and misses a team has when a select player is on the ice and dividing it by the previous in addition to the sum of shots against, blocked shots for, and misses against while that same player is on the ice. For more detailed information on Corsi For/Against %, see here.
Corsi is used to estimate a player’s impact on team possession, and percentages north of 50% indicate that the team is in control of the puck more when the select player is on the ice. In this case, between 2015 and 2017, when Panarin was on the ice with the Blackhawks at even strength, his team had greater possession than their opposition.
Follwing a controversial 2017 trade that sent Brandon Saad back to Chicago, Panarin joined the Columbus Blue Jackets and proved that the Blackhawks should have never traded him. He managed to eclipse the point-per-game mark in both of his seasons with Columbus, along with setting new highs in Corsi %.
Panarin poses in front of Madison Square Garden after signing a new contract.
Source: nypost.com
Panarin was a free agent following the 2018-19 season and chose to sign with the New York Rangers on a 7 year, $81.5 million contract. Carrying an average annual value (AAV) of $11.6 million, his contract represents the second highest in the league, only below Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers.
In his first year with the Rangers, Panarin was named a finalist for the Hart Memorial Trophy, which is awarded to the player most valuable to his team.
His nomination for this award was grounded on his explosive 95 point campaign in only 69 games played, shattering all of his previous career highs. From an analytical standpoint, Panarin experienced his highest Points/60 season yet, scoring an average of 4 points per 60 minutes that he was on the ice. Similarly, his Corsi numbers were above 50% as well.
Panarin is a player who thrives on his high hockey IQ and playmaking abilities to create goals for his team. On the Rangers, he is surrounded by young forward talent such as Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko, along with bonafide top line center Mika Zibanejad, whom he shares the ice with on the top power play unit.
This season, Panarin should be deployed on the same line as some of if not all of the aforementioned players at one point - further solidifying him as one of the cornerstones of the franchise. Artemi Panarin represents a small group of undrafted players who make it to the NHL and have an elite impact from the onset. He also represents somewhat of a failure by scouts and general managers by not taking a chance on him with a late-round pick.
However, Panarin stated in an interview following his signing with the Rangers "I would like to thank all the GMs for not choosing me in the draft because it allowed me to choose the team where I wanted to play, that played my style of hockey and allowed me to be successful to begin with." It seems now that the sky's the limit for Panarin in New York.
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