Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Artyom Levshunov has been showing steady progression over the last handful of games.
The Chicago Blackhawks put Artyom Levshunov on a development plan in the handful of games leading up to the Olympic Break.
That included sitting him out of NHL games without sending him down to the AHL. This allowed him to work with the coaching staff and practice with his NHL teammates without subjecting him to discouraging performances.
They also didn’t bruise his confidence, which can happen to a highly touted prospect if they are back and forth between the NHL and AHL. It was a somewhat risky move, but the early returns have been good for the player and the team.
Since coming back from break, Levshunov has been much better. Between his being scratched and the Olympics, he had close to a month without game action.
Although +/- is an extremely flawed metric in today’s world, being -5 in his last game played was not a good sign. He is still a minus in almost every game since returning, but his overall play has improved.
There is still work to be done with his game, both offensively and defensively. He has three assists in the 10 games since returning, and one waved-off goal.
One of the assists was a sensational pass to spring Connor Bedard into the offensive zone on Monday night against the Minnesota Wild. After receiving the puck from Levshunov, Bedard made a play to hit Frank Nazar for a game-tying goal that forced overtime.
Levshunov is becoming one of the most relied-upon players. Against the Wild, he led the Blackhawks with 26:29 of ice time. Only Quinn Hughes played more in the game for either side.
Levshunov plays big minutes at even strength, on the power play, and on the penalty kill. His ability to be a factor in every facet of the game makes him worth being patient with when it isn’t going as well.
After the OTL to the Wild, Jeff Blashill said that the young defenseman still needs some decision-making growth, but overall, there was a lot of good.
"Obviously a great play on the game-tying goal to get it up to [Bedard]," Blashill said. "He is making progress on things like deception with the puck. He defended hard, out there a lot against Kaprizov and Boldy. He defended really hard and did a good job with it."
Young defensemen very rarely make it to the NHL and dominate right away. It is the position that takes the most time to develop. For Levshunov, there have been significant flashes of brilliance to go with his warts.
The issues have all been coachable, and he is willing to get better every day instead of complaining about tough coaching. The organization clearly has a lot of faith in his potential, and his winning attitude makes it easier.
The nice thing for the Blackhawks is that they have other great young defensemen developing alongside Levshunov. Every player who dressed on defense against the Wild was 24 or younger.
Jeff Blashill attributed that decision to getting Ethan Del Mastro some consecutive games, as he believes it was earned by his play in Rockford.
"It's something that we talked about at the trade deadline," Blashill said on that decision to dress a younger blue line. "We decided to go that route. I thought Kaiser was excellent; the group had moments of good and moments of not good enough. We just have to continue to throw them in the fire and watch them grow."
The Blackhawks have Connor Bedard, Frank Nazar, and Anton Frondell, amongst other really good forwards who can make plays, but building from the net out has been important to Kyle Davidson and his staff.
As these young defenseman start to get even better in the coming years, the team will be extremely difficult to play against. A guy like Artyom Levshunov is expected to be one of the leaders in that area.
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