Morning Skate Update: Levshunov expected to make his NHL debut on Monday
After being recalled on Sunday afternoon, Monday’s pregame skate in Colorado suggests that 2024 No. 2 overall pick Artyom Levshunov will make his NHL debut against the Avalanche.
(Had to resort to screenshots since Twitter is broken right now)
It’ll be a steep test for the 19-year-old, who slots in against one of the fastest teams in the league, led by the frenetic pace of Nathan MacKinnon, who would be a terrifying matchup for any blue-liner, let alone a teenager making his NHL debut.
Based on the D pairings from the morning skate, Levshunov is expected to be on the third pairing opposite veteran Alec Martinez.
Levshunov may also see some power-play time:
During the 4 Nations break about one month ago, we checked in on Levshunov’s progress with the IceHogs and found a mixed bag of results, with Levshunov flashing some of the skills that made him such a high draft pick last summer while also showing some inconsistencies. That update mentioned a recent surge of points for Levshunov and that overall upward trend has continued into March, with all reports suggesting that Levshunov has been a much better player since the calendar flipped to 2025 than he was back in 2024. Perhaps the Blackhawks brass agreed with those assessments, deciding now was a good time to expose Levshunov to the NHL level after calling him up in February but electing to not have him skate in any games.
Anders Sorensen said after Monday’s skate that he doesn’t mind the trail-by-fire approach for Levshunov:
Sörensen likes the idea of Levshunov making his debut against an elite, fast team like the Avalanche.
"Yeah, let's get after it. This is the NHL, right? You want to be in the NHL, you're gonna play the best."— Mark Lazerus (@marklazerus.bsky.social) March 10, 2025 at 1:30 PM
How Levshunov manages the blue lines will be an interesting thing to watch this evening. When he’s been at this best in Rockford, he’s been effective at keeping offensive zone time alive with effective pinches at that blue line and minimizing offensive zone time for opponents by refusing to concede his own blue line, breaking up offensive chances before they even begin.
Whether or not he can manage that against a quality side like Colorado will be one of the primary things we’re watching this evening in a game that suddenly has a heightened level of intrigue surrounding it.
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