Artemi Panarin's Journey from Poverty to NHL Riches
2026: Artemi Panarin is 34 years old, he plays for the New York Rangers and earns $11.64 million per year. According to Forbes, the hockey player ranks sixth in NHL history among Russians with the largest contract. In the US, the athlete«s family has a house in a wealthy, quiet area of New York—several bedrooms with bathrooms, a steam room with a recovery zone, and a two-car garage. He lives there with his wife Alisa Znarok and two sons.
1999: Artemi Panarin is 8 years old, from the small regional town of Korkino in Chelyabinsk Oblast he travels to training in Chelyabinsk in his grandfather«s rusty, falling apart UAZ, if he»s lucky and there«s money for gas. If not—the boy waits for the regular bus, and the few rubles for the ticket his grandmother sews into a hidden pocket in his jacket. The family has no means to buy a uniform and skates that fit, so the future star puts hockey boots on over regular ones, and the rest of the equipment is made from worn-out things of older siblings.
In an interview with the American publication The Athletic, our hero recalled that besides the mine, there was nowhere to earn money in Korkino. When in 1992, after his parents« divorce, little Artemi ended up with his grandmother and grandfather, they barely made ends meet. Panarin»s grandfather worked at that very mine, his grandmother was a seamstress and baked pies for sale.
It was his grandfather who taught little Artemi to skate by the age of five.
«Grandpa found a suitable rope instead of laces,» Panarin recalled.
This summer, the Russian hockey player«s »fat« contract with the New York Rangers ends, and according to insiders, he is negotiating a new one, but due to age, the deal will no longer be as long-term. Moreover, the team»s management has planned a rebuild, and likely, Panarin may soon change his club affiliation.
But Artemi«s source of income, like all famous athletes, is not just his official salary. In 2021, besides his high salary, Panarin had sponsorship contracts, for example with Reebok, which brought him $400,000. The athlete spends his hard-earned money modestly by his colleagues» standards and does not forget about charity.
Panarin«s Charity
Artemi Panarin opened a charitable foundation back in 2019. That was the same period when he purchased the mansion in New York. The initiative for creation belongs to him and his beloved wife—Alisa Znarok.
«The idea for the charitable foundation is shared between me and Artemi. I was taught since childhood to invest in charity; my parents are involved with shelters and children. My husband and I agreed on this, started looking for children, organized the foundation to take it seriously and have someone help us,» the forward«s wife said in one interview.
Among the foundation«s founders, by the way, are not only Artemi Panarin and Alisa Znarok, but also his hockey agent Artem Gavrilov. The organization is registered at an apartment on Krestovsky Island in St. Petersburg (with a cadastral value of 75 million rubles, approx. $750,000 at current rates, and an area of about 155 square meters). This property the caring grandson purchased for his grandmother and grandfather, who raised him from three months old.
The charitable foundation directs aid specifically—to Korkino, where the hockey player finds people and facilities most in need of support. «I have an allocated million dollars—I invested it in securities in America. On average, it yields 8% earnings each year. These 8% through the foundation we will give to sick children, orphanages, or pensioners. If we give only to pensioners, it won»t be enough for all, maybe 15–20 thousand each. And I won«t spend the whole million, because it would burn out. But from each salary I will add: invest $100,000,» the NHL player told Sports.ru.
He explained this amount by saying that during his time playing for Chicago, he received bonuses of 1.5–2 million dollars. «I told myself then: »if I achieve them, I«ll give $500,000 to people.» And I achieved them twice,« the athlete added.
Judging by the charitable foundation«s report in the VKontakte group, work on the needs of Panarin»s fellow townspeople is ongoing. Recent posts on the social network show photos of an updated gym in a rehabilitation center and a report on the opening of two ice rinks.
His foundation also renovated a cold locker room in Korkino for athletes practicing taekwondo. In winter, children changed there at sub-zero temperatures indoors.
Another example of the hockey player«s charity was his help to 17-year-old Sasha Fedin from Korkino, who suffers from cerebral palsy. Panarin gifted the boy a MyWam Yeti wheelchair, which is designed specifically for children and teens with developmental disabilities. Models from this firm cost from 300,000 rubles (approx. $3,000 at current rates).
The organization also allocates money for animal treatment and for solving utility problems—the list is extensive. However, according to official data, Panarin spends less than three million rubles (approx. $30,000) on good deeds because he files simplified reports to the Ministry of Justice. And he doesn«t always manage to monitor Russian accounts.
For example, as of 3 April 2025, the charitable foundation had accumulated a debt to the Federal Tax Service of almost 78,000 rubles (approx. $780) for untimely tax payment.
Business on Sticks and Gloves
In Russia, Artemi Panarin has at least three more companies registered. He has a namesake foundation and sole proprietorship that engage in intellectual property trade, opened in the summer of 2025. In the same period, he registered a company, BRO LLC, with four business partners.
It specializes in selling sticks and gloves. The firm appeared on the market relatively recently, trading equipment at least since 2023. Then, for promotion, they actively involved media personalities and purchased ads from blogger Nikita Tau Naledi.
The cost of sticks varies from 15,000 to 30,000 rubles (approx. $150–$300). At the same time, the creators say each has a unique «curve.» When ordering, you can choose which one to play with: like Ovechkin, Panarin, or other famous hockey players.
As CEO Mikhail Kraskov said, the company has been operating for several years. They officially registered and opened a store this summer.
«We registered in July. Our brand BRO sells gloves and sticks for amateurs, for professionals,» he told MSK1.RU. «Professional KHL players use our sticks.»
Among hockey players using BRO brand sticks are KHL stars—Mark Verba, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Nikolai Goldobin, and others.
Panarin owns effectively 20% of the company«s shares and is one of the brand»s founders. Besides him, Ilya Prokhorov, Rinat Adelshin, and Leonid Kalugin each have 23% of the share. All are former hockey players who never played at the top level of Russian leagues. Also, Ivan Ageev, who plays at an amateur level, has an 11% share in the company.
Earns from Sports Centers in Moscow
The company BRO«s only offline sales point so far is located in the Arena Play South sports and gaming center, opened in early 2022 in New Moscow—it was founded on the site of the old Gazprom sports complex in Kommunarka.
Eight months later, a second center was launched—Arena Play North right near Ostankino Park. Three years later, in September 2025, Arena Play Technopolis appeared in the special economic zone Technopolis Moscow in Zelenograd.
In the sports center in Kommunarka, as indicated in the VKontakte group, there is also the hockey school Arena play by Artemiy Panarin. Each arena has ice rinks that are rented out to such academies.
«Not much investment,» Artemi Panarin said in an interview with the program «This is hockey, brother» in April 2025. «We assembled the right team, things got going. The organization is small. I don»t donate my own money yet, as there«s no such opportunity. People themselves pay for the academy, it»s held on a commercial basis. Otherwise, by age 38 I«d be bankrupt and commentating on matches with you [journalists].»
The trademark Arena Play or abbreviated «AP» (which can be deciphered as Artemiy Panarin—Ed.) belongs to Artemi Panarin. The trademark is registered at the legal address in the same apartment on Krestovsky. Probably, Panarin receives royalties through his sole proprietorship for using the name.
According to Unified State Register of Legal Entities documents, one of the owners of the sports complex in Kommunarka is Panarin«s agent—Artem Gavrilov. Another co-founder is former SKA hockey player Anton Korolev. They met while playing for Vityaz. They played together only a year, then Panarin moved to SKA, but it didn»t hinder their friendship.
The key founder is a certain 32-year-old Ilyas Nazipov, who has half the company«s share. The two other sports complexes also belong to him. The one near Ostankino Park he shares 50-50 with 30-year-old Anastasia Kashina. But the third center in Zelenograd is fully owned by Nazipov.
Little is known about Ilyas Nazipov. He was born in Kazan, grew up in Zelenodolsky District, later moved to Moscow, where he received higher education at the Higher School of Economics university.
Besides sports complexes, Ilyas is the general director of the company AF-Holding. The firm owns about a 16% stake in the specialized developer Latarius, with the main package belonging to MR Group, which built the business-class high-rises Fili City.
The elite residential complex is just two kilometers from Moscow-City. Interestingly, Arena Play South, built on the site of the Gazprom sports complex, was initially purchased by the company Stroy-Servis JSC.
The firm is one of Moscow«s largest contractors for renovation. Moreover, it was Stroy-Servis JSC that prepared the foundations for Moscow-City.
Bought Bitcoins and Planned to Invest in Apiary
The New York Rangers forward doesn«t miss opportunities to invest in business. Back in 2019, Panarin told RIA Novosti in an interview that he invests thousands of dollars in large companies. He purchased shares in Google, Ford, Amazon, and others. He started with three thousand dollars, after three years added another $30,000 with an annual return of 8–9%.
«Also bought a bit of gold, now I want to take residential real estate,» Panarin shared with journalists then.
A year later, Panarin«s opportunities to invest in business did not decrease but only increased. Already in 2020, he said that 70% of his income from the new contract he signed in 2019 was transferred to securities of IT companies.
Moreover, in July 2021 in an interview with Forbes, Panarin admitted he was ready to take up agricultural business, as «in many countries there is a shortage of good products.» He thought he could quite open his own apiary and eventually did open it.
«I have honey of my own production. There»s a special suit, there were two hives outside, now one. One didn«t survive,» the forward said in an episode of «This is hockey, brother.» «There»s also a whole house in Novgorod Oblast, I placed five hives against the wall, with flaps to the outside so bees don«t fly into the house. My grandfather was a former beekeeper, so I decided to make my own [apiary].»
The house the athlete speaks of is in the village of Tumashevo, 231 km from Veliky Novgorod. But Panarin was modest: on the territory near the lake, besides the main building, there are a guest house, a sauna, a gazebo with a fire area, and a large shed with a chicken coop. «Chickens, goats—you see? Let»s go look, they«re all grazing now. We»ll go get eggs there, fresh ones. Oh, see: goats ate the tree. Here are sheep. Here Ilona Nikolaevna is lying—named after my mother-in-law. No, I love my mother-in-law. Need to say hi,« Artemi joked in an interview with the project »Respirator Babushkina.«
Panarin was into cryptocurrency before it became mainstream. In a 2019 interview, he predicted that Bitcoin could be worth $100,000. There were moments when it fell below $3–4, but Panarin still didn«t sell, even when losing substantial sums.
«I invested small amounts that I was ready to lose, allocated a certain budget. There was a period when Bitcoin cost $66, or something, but I didn»t withdraw anything—my standard of living likely wouldn«t have changed there. Either all or nothing—that was the strategy,» Panarin admitted.
Previously, MSK1.RU wrote that in Moscow, Alexander Ovechkin«s autograph is being sold for 35 million rubles (approx. $350,000). Where such an amount comes from and why the owner considers it fair, read in our material.
