Breaking down the Blackhawks’ power-play strategy: Sam Rinzel, Frank Nazar add new elements

The Blackhawks will be hard-pressed to replicate their surprising power-play success of last season, but they’re going to try.

Head coach Jeff Blashill has left that unit relatively intact in terms of personnel and system, handing it over to assistant Mike Vellucci to oversee on a day-to-day basis. It has undergone much less change than the penalty kill.

Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen remain on the flanks, and Tyler Bertuzzi is still the net-front guy within a 1-3-1 formation. They were staples of the Hawks’ power play last season, which somehow ranked seventh in the NHL with a 24.9% conversion rate despite generating the fewest shots and fifth-fewest scoring chances per minute.

The newbies are defenseman Sam Rinzel as the quarterback and Frank Nazar in the bumper (in the middle of the 1-3-1). Their adjustments to and success in those roles might determine how fruitful the unit is.

Rinzel’s role

Blashill said Friday that defenseman Artyom Levshunov is competing with Rinzel for power-play ice time, but Rinzel clearly has the upper hand entering the regular season. (Levshunov has quarterbacked the second unit with Ryan Donato, Andre Burakovsky, Nick Foligno and Colton Dach so far.)

‘‘[Rinzel has] good poise,’’ Blashill said. ‘‘What I like most about him is he doesn’t let mistakes bother him.’’

Rinzel’s speed enables him to contribute more to offensive-zone entries than defensemen Alex Vlasic and Seth Jones did last season. When the Red Wings made it their strategy to intercept the Hawks’ drop-pass entries Tuesday, for example, Rinzel carried the puck into the zone by himself.

Rinzel’s ability to keep his feet moving once inside the zone is impressive, too. He’s active along the blue line, trying to open passing or shooting lanes through the penalty kill.

‘‘[Sam] being so shifty…helps back other teams off,’’ Nazar said. ‘‘They can’t be super aggressive and go right at him because [they know] he’s going to be able to make a play through you.’’

The layout of the Hawks’ power play is interesting, with Rinzel, Nazar and Bedard all being right-handed shots.

When Teravainen — arguably the Hawks’ best passer — holds the puck on the right wing, facing toward the middle, he has three options for potential one-timers.

Nazar’s role

Nazar got his first taste of working with Vellucci on the power play on Team USA at the world championships last spring. Vellucci positioned Nazar at the net-front during that tournament, even though he usually played on the flank for the Hawks.

Now Vellucci has Nazar in the bumper, a role Nazar hadn’t filled since his predraft years but one that his quickness and tenacity make him well-suited for.

Playing in the bumper requires versatility. He has to change positions and body angles constantly within the thick of the penalty kill to provide a passing option for whoever has the puck, and he has to provide support during every missed-shot or loose-puck retrieval.

Nazar and Bertuzzi do have a green light to switch positions temporarily, so Nazar might end up around the net sometimes. He and Kraken forward Matty Beniers did the same thing at the world championships, so Nazar is accustomed to it.

‘‘To be successful [in the bumper], you have to be smart enough to find the little areas, and you’ve got to get the shot off and elevate it quickly,’’ Blashill said. ‘‘That’s why guys like Brayden Point and [Sam] Reinhart have been so good there.’’

In addition to Point and Reinhart, Blashill also has shown Nazar videos of Wings forward Dylan Larkin in the bumper.

That’s particularly relevant because Larkin, a lefty, has mastered the challenge of receiving passes from a lefty flanker in Patrick Kane and shooting them in one smooth motion. Nazar hopes to learn how to do the same with passes from Bedard, only in reverse as two righties.