DENVER — The No. 2 overall pick is about to make his NHL debut.
The Blackhawks called up top prospect Artyom Levshunov on Sunday after he played his 50th AHL game Saturday. The move burned their third of four allotted post-trade deadline call-ups, but in this case, nobody is thinking much about that.
Levshunov is expected to play in his first NHL game this week, possibly as soon as Monday against the Avalanche. After that, the Hawks continue their road trip Thursday against the Sharks (and No. 1 pick Macklin Celebrini) and Saturday against the Canucks.
The Hawks will probably want the 19-year-old Belarusian defenseman to experience Rockford’s high-stakes games at the very end of the regular season and in the AHL playoffs, so his NHL stint might only last a couple weeks, giving him just a taste.
He arrives as the Hawks, riding a five-game point streak, seek to continue playing their best hockey of the season. Spencer Knight and Arvid Soderblom have provided excellent goaltending, which should help prevent Levshunov’s inevitable rookie mistakes from leading to too many discouraging goals against.
Levshunov has improved immensely from the start of Rockford’s season until now, but outside the Hawks organization, opinions are divided on whether he’s quite NHL-ready yet or not. Even Hawks brass doesn’t know for certain, and they’re OK with that.
“A lot of times, you don’t know [if someone is ready] until you try, until you see it,” Rockford interim coach Mark Eaton said Sunday.
Levshunov’s ups and downs in the fall weren’t too surprising, considering how little high-level North American experience he possessed entering this season. It took him some time to learn what works and what doesn’t against professionals.
He has surged since January, however, racking up 11 points in his last 14 games to get to 22 points on the season. His 137 shots on goal rank third among AHL defensemen.
“He’s starting to ingrain some of the pro habits into his game: the consistent compete level and urgency level,” Eaton said.
“A lot of times, less is more, right? [It’s about] not going out of your way to try to create offense but [rather] being efficient with your puck movement on retrievals and coming out of ‘D’-zone. [He’s] keeping it simple in the offensive zone, joining [rushes] at the right times, getting shots through and creating rebounds. It sounds simple, but doing it consistently is something that he has gotten better with.”
Levshunov has arguably improved most in the defensive zone, maintaining tighter gaps and stricter positioning while using his imposing 6-2, 210-pound frame to break up plays.
“[He’s] taking more pride in the defensive zone and…being strong in front of the net,” Eaton said. “[He’s] closing quickly when it’s his job to close on the puck-carrier.
“He has elite quickness and elite strength. When he’s using it consistently, he can be a force in the defensive zone. And then I think he’s starting to realize that playing good defense, being sound there, is going to allow you to possess more pucks.”
This technically isn’t Levshunov’s first NHL call-up this season. He previously came up to participate in a few Hawks practices during the AHL All-Star break in early February. But this call-up is much more significant.
The Hawks now have eight defensemen on the roster. That isn’t inherently a problem because there’s no limit after the deadline, but it will create some tough decisions for Hawks interim coach Anders Sorensen.
Young defensemen Ethan Del Mastro, Louis Crevier and Wyatt Kaiser have all stepped up since Seth Jones’ departure, so it will be interesting to see which one Sorensen removes to fit in Levshunov. Embattled veteran T.J. Brodie, meanwhile, has been a healthy scratch for the last four games and is now buried even further down the depth chart.