Artemi Panarin’s shaved head gives fast Rangers start a fresh look

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By Mollie Walker

SEATTLE — Artemi Panarin looks lighter on the ice this season.

And no, it’s not just because the star Russian wing shaved the pounds of curls off his head roughly a week after he returned to his home country this past offseason, which many inferred was in response to his poor performance in the Rangers’ seven-game first-round loss to the Devils.

In fact, Panarin said shaving his head was something he’s always wanted to try.

So the 31-year-old called up his good friend, who drove three hours to cut his hair in a traditional Russian sauna — a banya — which is heated with firewood.

His wife, Alisa, found out over FaceTime and was shocked.

Over the next three months, every time he went to re-shave it, she begged him to grow it back.

The bouncing dirty blonde curls that stick out from under his helmet are Panarin’s signature physical trait, and his new look has taken everybody some time to get used to.

“It was actually a great experience for me,” Panarin told The Post after an intense practice at the Seattle Community Iceplex Monday morning. “I find that usually people recognize you and then the relationship with you is not like [it is] with everyone [else]. I feel it right now when people don’t know you.”

Riding a five-game point streak into Tuesday night’s matchup with the Flames in Calgary, Panarin leads the Rangers with three goals and four assists, as well as two multipoint performances.

It’s his second straight season with points in each of the Blueshirts’ first five games, after a six-game streak in 2022-23.

The only players in Rangers history to have a similar streak in back-to-back years are Andy Bathgate and Rod Gilbert.

Points aside, Panarin has been a playmaker.

He’s played aggressively with the puck, while remaining defensively responsible.

The line he’s skated on, with Filip Chytil and Alexis Lafreniere, has far and away been the Rangers’ most consistently threatening trio.

“They’re young guys, excited to play hockey every night,” Panarin said of Chytil and Lafreniere. “I respect and really like it, [when] people have [a] relationship with hockey like how it should be.”

Despite shedding some weight in hair, Panarin said he actually gained weight this offseason, during which he tried to lift more than usual in order to try something different with his routine.

Reference