Philipp Kurashev hopes to unlock his potential with the Chicago Blackhawks next season

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Chicago Blackhawks forward Philipp Kurashev is about as subdued a personality as they come, but he broke out in a big smile when he thought back to the first time he met Pavel Datsyuk, one of his idols.

To the best of his recollection, Kurashev’s uncle knew Datsyuk and introduced his teenage nephew to the “The Magic Man” after the Detroit Red Wings lost a home playoff game to the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2015.

“It was really awesome,” Kurashev told the Tribune before the Hawks’ season finale Friday against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center. “I was way too shy. I don’t think I could really talk to him. I was too excited.”

For Kurashev, Datsyuk and Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin have been his “main guys,” the players he holds up as model pros: “Everyone knows how good they are and why I would like them.”

Friday’s curtain-closer marked the completion of Kurashev’s second season, though this time he was around the team for a full 82-game season and feeling more like a veteran.

“It’s a really big summer for me,” he said. “Now I experienced a full NHL season. The one before was kind of short and now I know exactly what it takes.

“I’m trying to work in areas in my game that can help me become the player I want to become.”

Kurashev had six goals and 15 assists in 66 games entering Friday, but the ups and downs he faced would make any 22-year-old’s head spin.

“We had a tough start to the year, and the losing streak and all those moments that were kind of hard for us,” he said of the Hawks’ 1-9-2 start — beginning with a nine-game winless streak — that led to coach Jeremy Colliton’s firing in early November.

Kurashev has gone from the fourth to the top line (including coach Derek King trusting him with the Jonathan Toews-Patrick Kane reunion line) and everything in between.

Kurashev also had a three-game stint in Rockford in December and a series of healthy scratches in March and April.

For example, his play against the San Jose Sharks on April 14 prompted King to bench him for the next game against the Nashville Predators.

“Wasn’t drastic,” King said at the time. “But, you know, don’t give a coach an excuse to pull a guy, right?”

Kurashev said he never let it affect him mentally.

“Control what you can,” he said.

There also have been glimpses of a player rounding out his game: two assists against the Los Angeles Kings on April 12, and a career high four-blocks against the Philadelphia Flyers on April 25.

And Kurashev is versatile. He can play center or wing, though he spent 57% of his ice time at left wing, according to leftwinglock.com.

As quick as King has been to give Kurashev the hook, he still has high expectations for the forward.

“Ideal world, he’s got to be a top-six player,” King said earlier this month.

Said Kurashev on Friday: “It’s a great compliment (that) the coach thinks like this. I have a lot of work to do this offseason and hopefully come back a better player and fill out this role.”

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That’s one area where coach and player agree.

The other part of King’s assessment was this: “The work part of it — the consistency on the work ethic — was his struggle. He’d give you a couple good games and then he’d fade away.”

Kurashev said he wants to use the summer to improve his play away from the puck.

“Be in better position, always, (and) try to be a player they could lean on,” he said. “And then offensively, too, get to areas where I can get the puck to shoot more and use my shot and my skill more.”

Too bad he never got any shooting tips from Datsyuk when he had the chance.

“I haven’t talked to him since then,” Kurashev laughed. “Hopefully I wouldn’t be as shy as when I was 14 and I would actually ask him some questions. There’s a lot of things, how he plays the game, how he was a complete player. There was nothing he couldn’t do, just ask him some of those things.”

Then after some thought, Kurashev said, “Maybe he can show me a Magic trick.”