Arty Party

Bear with me. I’m still learning the quirks of micro.blog, but so far… I really like it. Figured that while I’m in a turkey-induced coma, I’d give a Blackhawks post a shot. I have this scheduled to post in the morning, so we’ll see how that goes. Also, the Hawks play tonight at 7 pm CT; they’re hosting the Nashville Predators.

Let’s talk about Artyom Levshunov.

A quick note, apologize for any weird formatting or glitches. Still learning how to do this in Markdown

Levshunov

Artyom Levshunov finally scored his first NHL goal in the Blackhawks' 4-3 OT loss to the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday night. Surprisingly, it took 40 games in the NHL—he’s been at a 4.31 shots per 60 and 8.79 shot attempts/60 this season alone. That’s a high volume of shots, and some might look at that as “garbage” volume. A high volume of low-quality shots doesn’t really mean much. I’d argue that if it’s coming from a defenseman on the point, that’s a good thing because those are the shots that turn into rebounds.

Levshunov’s high-volume shooting was one of the arguments a friend used to point out why Levshunov wasn’t a good player. The other arguments were a large amount of starts in the offensive zone, terrible decision-making, and horrible defensive zone mistakes. This friend was also very upset that Ivan Demidov wasn’t selected in 2024 (I don’t blame him; most of us were).

Let’s look at some numbers. 71% of Levshunov’s shifts start in the offensive zone (OZ), according to Natural StatTrick. That’s the highest on the team. There’s certainly a lot of sheltering there, but considering that Levshunov is 19, should arguably be with the Rockford IceHogs (something I disagree with), and has an offensive tool set—I’m fine with that. But those zone starts are partially why his stats look pretty good (a 49.09 xG% but a 56.13% actual goals share at 5v5).

This clip is a perfect example of what Levshunov usually does after making a bad decision. He’s such a good skater that he backchecked and recovered to disrupt a Seattle Kraken breakaway. The mistake that led to this (an ill-timed pinch) is an example of the types of reads that Levshunov usually finds himself cleaning up (like that giveaway when he was QBing the PP1). But he finds a way to come back from those mistakes.

Like most young defensemen, Levshunov has a long way to go in the DZ. But I don’t think he’s been that bad. His reach often breaks up plays, and he’s physical on the puck carrier. Concerns include puck watching, going behind the net when he shouldn’t, and what he does with the puck on a retrieval. But like most young defensemen, the defense will come. I’m more concerned with what he does when the Hawks are trying to score, anyway.

As of tonight, Artyom Levshunov is tied for fourth in scoring with 14 points. He has questionable decision-making and needs to clean up some defensive zone work. But Levshunov has been very impressive considering his age. Should he be in the AHL? That’s up for debate, but because of his skating ability, I still believe keeping him in the NHL is fine. Should we have taken Ivan Demidov? As someone who watches a lot of Montreal Canadiens games, I still think that’s a sore subject for me. Either way, Levshunov’s chaotic play has made me second-guess my take that he should be in the NHL, but right now, the kid belongs.