When the Chicago Blackhawks drew the second-overall pick, the two big fish were defenseman Artyom Levshunov and forward Ivan Demidov, as Macklin Celebrini was the surefire first-overall selection. The Blackhawks took Levshunov, and this season, at 20 years old, he’s playing his first full campaign. It started on the right foot, but in the second half of the season, it’s taken a turn.
Levshunov’s First Half of the Season
Levshunov started the season red-hot. Levshunov was on the bottom pair, but impressed enough people and slowly worked his way up through the lineup. He’s a rookie, so he still had his struggles that were apparent in the season opener against the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Florida Panthers, and a few games afterwards.
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Levshunov eventually found his stride later on. There have been three times so far that he’s had a three-game point streak (he’s never exceeded that). Two of those stretches, combined, saw him tally seven points in a span of seven games from Oct. 28 to Nov. 9. None of those points included a goal, though.
There was a point in the season where Levshunov couldn’t manage to score a goal, no matter what he tried. He hit so many posts. His first goal finally came on Nov. 26 against the Minnesota Wild, and it was to take a 3-2 lead halfway through the third on a dish from Connor Bedard.
Levshunov celebrated more for his teammates’ goals than his first one. That shows you what type of character he is. He became more offensively and defensively sound, and overall settled in nicely, exactly what you would want from your young, first-year defenseman. Unfortunately, as he was put into a bigger role and sheltered less by head coach Jeff Blashill, the wheels fell off.
Levshunov Should Be Sent Down to the AHL
The game against the Pittsburgh Penguins was easily Levshunov’s worst performance of his career. In the second period, he was on the ice for all four of the goals against, and then the final one in the third period. He finished the game as a minus-5. Levshunov was lost the entire game.
The second goal of the game for Pittsburgh, scored by Ben Kindel, was probably the worst display. Once the puck entered the zone, Levshunov ditched the left side and his assignment as a whole, found himself on the same side as Wyatt Kaiser, and then scurried through the crease after he let up a wide-open point-blank shot. Right after, Levshunov went up in the play, whiffed on the puck next to the boards, and then Kindell sniped it past Arvid Soderblom.
Later in the second frame, Egor Chinakhov dangled right around Levshunov to make it 3-1 Penguins. About 30 seconds later, after the goal from Chinakhov, he didn’t see Kaiser fall on the backcheck, and Anthony Mantha strolled into the zone unbothered and tucked one home past Soderblom to make it 4-1 Pens.
After the disaster on Thursday, he was a healthy scratch for the game on Friday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Blashill described it as a little reset for him. Sam Rinzel was called up to replace him, and he had a great game.
Levshunov still has the expectation to be the #1 defender in the future. Defensemen take more time to develop; not everyone is a Matthew Schaefer. Even when he’s slumping, he still finds ways to impress and show you what he can really be. However, that doesn’t mean it’s not alarming that things have gone south this quickly.
It’s about time that Levshunov is sent down to get some time in with the Rockford Icehogs. As of right now, he has 21 points in 52 games and is a minus-27. While +/- doesn’t mean as much as it used to, it’s still not a pretty stat. Being sent down to Rockford isn’t a punishment — it’ll be a reset for him to tear up the competition down there and come back up with some confidence — it’s certainly a better scenario than throwing him up in the press box.
