At first sight it seems like a long journey from the lowly Vityaz organization where he made his KHL debut in 2008. That Moscow Region team is perhaps better known for its notorious game-halting brawl with Avangard in 2010 than for nurturing talented players.

Yet Panarin isn’t the only player to emerge from that club and achieve greater things. His team-mates in the 2011-12 season included Mikhail Anisin and Yevgeni Timkin, both of whom have also hoisted the Gagarin Cup with Dynamo Moscow and Metallurg Magnitogorsk respectively.

Panarin’s big move to SKA in 2013 coincided with the team’s subtle switch in focus. Instead of bringing in big-name stars, the organization looked to uncover talented prospects and meld them into a winning team. Panarin was part of that process, as was the signing of Atlant Moscow Region’s young defenceman Roman Rukavishnikov, another candidate for the national team who just missed out on a call-up to Ostrava. It’s a tactic that earned the approval of Zinetula Bilyaletdinov, the Ak Bars Kazan head coach whose team lost out to SKA in that Gagarin Cup final.

“Pretty much everyone they signed this season was a player with big potential,” he said. “And then you have Panarin, who is one of a kind in the KHL. Just take a look at his line. It’s incredible!”

Now the youngster, still just 23, is earning the respect of the American players in Ostrava, even before he makes his debut across the Atlantic.

Defenceman Torey Krug faced Panarin earlier this week and despite Russia’s 4-2 defeat against the USA, the Boston Bruins man was impressed with what he saw and likened him to his own team’s first round draft pick from the season just gone.

“He’s got a ton of skill,” Krug said. “Talking to some of the guys who’ve seen him play more than me, they compared to [David] Pastrnak at Boston.

“He’s fast, he’s got a lot of skill and he makes those kind of quick plays that you see a lot in North American players. I think he’s going to fit in well in Chicago.”

Panarin came out of that game with just one assist, much to the relief of US goalie Jack Campbell. “Panarin’s a hot little player, he’s deadly out there,” he said. “Our defence did a great job of limiting his chances.”

While Russia’s uneven performances so far have disappointed the huge expectations of the team’s fans, Panarin, at least, is emerging as an unreserved success story.