Sergei Potvinov grew up poor in the small town of Annopolis, Russia.  His mother died when he was young and his father tried his best to make ends meet.  In order for Potvinov to get involved in ice hockey, his father had to tie sharpened blades to the soles of his boots with fishing line and twine.  For this very reason, skating was Potvinov's weakness.  He realized early that he didn't have to skate as much if he stayed in goal, thus a goaltender was born.  

Potvinov played against kids that were older and better than him while he was growing up.  This helped him become better as he had to learn to keep up with the competition.  However, being from the smallest town in Russia meant there was no exposure to SMJHL scouts and Sergei Potvinov was not drafted or even ranked for the draft.  His father, seeing the talent that his son had, sold his small farm to pay for a plane ticket to Anchorage for a try-out with the Armada for the back-up position.  Potvinov proved he had the talent and work ethic to improve and the Armada promptly signed him to be their back-up.

This helped put him on the radar of SHL teams and Potvinov was chosen in the 2nd round of the S52 SHL draft by the Chicago Syndicate.