Panarin is a way better and committed defensive player than Kane. He also backchecks, which is something Kane shows little willingness to do. Panarin also wins a fair number of board battles. Neither are deficiencies in his game.
The reason he gets so many offensive zone starts is simply because of Kruger and Toews, who take as many defensive zone draws as is humanly possible, because why wouldn't they. Q has a few faults, such as his illogical man crushes on useless grinders like Bollig/Mashinter/Tootoo, but one thing he is as good at as any coach is exploiting matchups. Kruger (and Bolland before him) gives him a crutch to lean on that gets the puck out of the D zone pretty quickly and then if his line isn't able to carry the puck into the O zone, they will flip a weak shot on net and crash to force an offensive zone faceoff for the Panarin/Anisimov/Kane line.
I really do not understand why other teams do not consistently deploy this strategy with their bottom six lines. Dump and chase is so stupid, especially when you are a smaller, skilled team like the Hawks. Carry it in or throw it at the goalie and force him to freeze it. There is a better chance of winning a faceoff (even with Anisimov) than there is of dumping the puck in and retrieving it.