Photo credit to MSU Spartans and Yuri Kuzmin/KHL
The NHL hosted its annual NHL Draft Lottery on Tuesday night to decide who would pick first and second overall in the 2024 NHL Draft. The San Jose Sharks won the ultimate prize winning the number one overall pick in which they will most likely pick Boston University’s Macklin Celebrini. The Blackhawks did have some luck even after missing out on number one, by winning the lottery for the second overall pick. While the Blackhawks likely missed out on Celebrini, the chance to draft a highly talented player second overall will bolster the future of the Blackhawks.
While Celebrini is the unanimous number one overall prospect in the 2024 NHL Draft, there are two prospects that could hear their name called second overall and call Chicago home in their future. The question the Blackhawks front office will have to answer from now until June 28th is Ivan Demidov and Artyom Levshunov?
Ivan Demidov RW/C, SKA St. Petersburg
Demidov is a highly skilled forward out of Russia who has been setting all sorts of records in the KHL for draft eligible players. Demidov posted 23 goals and 37 assists(60 points) in 30 MHL games this past season while also leading the league in playoff scoring with 11 goals and 17 assists(28 points) in 17 games.
The comparisons always run wild when it comes to comparing a draft prospect to an already developed and established player but for Demidov, he has been compared to Tampa Bay Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov. That is very high praise considering what Kucherov does every single season for Tampa Bay but the stats show it.
Demidov still has one year left on his KHL contract, which means if the Blackhawks select him second overall his rookie campaign would not come until 2025-26 at the earliest. The wait would be well worth it if he is the guy and Connor Bedard would have a highly skilled winger for the next 10+ years in Chicago.
Artyom Levshunov D, Michigan State
Levshunov is a right-handed shot defenseman who is currently listed as 6 ‘2” 209 lbs and plays a tremendous two-way game. He posted 9 goals and 26 assists(35 points) in 38 games in his freshman campaign for Michigan State. Levshunov is
physically gifted and will be able to hold his own right away in puck battles and board battles in the NHL. It is then an added bonus he can play a major factor in the offensive zone by producing points. Levshunov won Big Ten Freshman and Defensive Player of the Year this past season and will continue to get better every single season. Levshunov has been compared to Vegas Golden Knights’ Alex Pietrangelo. Pietrangelo plays a two-way game at an elite level and has done so for many years. To be compared to a two-time Stanley Cup winner and Olympic gold medalist is some very high praise for a very difficult position in the NHL.
If I had to pick one player right now for the Blackhawks to pick, my selection would be Artyom Levshunov. This would give the Blackhawks a top-four defensemen of Alex Vlasic, Seth Jones, Kevin Korchinski, and Levshunov for the foreseeable future and solidify those spots. The key to building any Stanley Cup caliber team is their blue-line and if Levshunov is the guy, the Blackhawks would not have to worry about those spots for 6+ years. This room of defensemen would remind me a lot of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s blue-liners that helped them bring back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021.
No matter what happens come June 28th when Kyle Davidson announces the pick, the Blackhawks will be getting a franchise cornerstone to add to the already tremendous prospect system they have in Chicago.
Credit to @lassialanen, @Hockey_Robinson, and @MSU_Hockey on X/Twitter for their tweets.
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