Blackhawks’ Artyom Levshunov showed a taste of what’s to come in NHL debut
The Chicago Blackhawks got another glimpse into their future Monday night with the debut of defenseman Artyom Levshunov, the second-overall selection from last summer’s NHL Draft.
On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk chatted about Levshunov’s performance against the Colorado Avalanche and what could be next for the budding blue-liner.
Frank Seravalli: I thought the Blackhawks did a great job managing the Seth Jones trade without much leverage and without many places to send him to. It’s a perfect transition to Levshunov who made his debut last night on the back end. We made the joke on yesterday’s show, ‘Hey, congratulations kid. You’re getting thrown into the lineup for your NHL debut as the No. 2 overall pick from last June’s draft. And oh, by the way, you get to go up against Nathan MacKinnon and the Avalanche.’ He was thrown right into the deep end of the pool. I love the response from Anders Sorensen, the Blackhawks’ coach, who yesterday was like, ‘So what? It’s the NHL.’ It’s not like you just to get pick days on the schedule where you’re going to take a day off. That’s really not how it works. In an odd way, I think perhaps Levshunov could be one of those guys who plays better at the NHL level and shows better at the NHL level than he did at the AHL level. There are way fewer mistakes at the NHL level. The game is more predictable. It’s less chaotic. And not to say that he struggled at the AHL level, but people looked at it and said, ‘Oh, is he really a No. 2 overall pick? He doesn’t look like a ‘can’t miss’ player.’ Well, he has been through a lot as an 18-year-old. This was a really important moment. I don’t think he’s there for the long haul. He came up to get a taste of the NHL and, by the way, looked damn good doing it. He was not out of place at all last night against the Avalanche.
Tyler Yaremchuk: No. You saw the 20:55 [of ice time]. I went over to Natural Stat Trick. The three forwards he was on the ice against the most in that game were Valeri Nichushkin, MacKinnon, and Brock Nelson, so they definitely did a little bit of a ‘push him off the deep end’ thing last night. It wasn’t sheltered, third-pairing minutes at all, and Levshunov passed his first test.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here: