Drafted second overall by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2024, Artyom Levshunov has stepped into the NHL and quickly scored his first goal against the Minnesota Wild while putting together an impressive rookie season on the Blackhawks’ blue line. Already the highest-picked Belarusian in league history, he is logging big minutes, piling up assists, and pushing himself to raise his game every night.
In this translated interview, originally appearing on the Belarusian website betnews.by, the defenseman talks about his first NHL goal, adapting to life in North America, learning from veterans in Chicago, and chasing long-term dreams like the Stanley Cup and Olympic success.
**You can read the original interview in Russian at the Belarusian website betnews.by by Sergei Malyshko here**
He shrugs off the emotional high of Chicago’s dramatic 5–3 win over the Anaheim Ducks, where the Blackhawks erased a 0–3 deficit, as if it were nothing extraordinary (the interview was taken in late November). “We won, that’s the main thing. We keep working.”
The mindset is familiar to him from childhood: he recalls a youth tournament with Dinamo Minsk in Nizhny Novgorod, where his team was down 0–5 to Spartak Moscow but came back to win 6–5 in a shootout. “I don’t remember how many points I had, but I scored in the shootout,” he laughs.
Even now, with Chicago outside the playoff spot after a third of the season, he refuses to dramatize the standings. “Nothing terrible. Overall, we’re playing fine. Many losses are by one goal. We’ll keep fighting.” That calm attitude carries into how he sees his own breakout year; while others say he is exceeding expectations and climbing Calder Trophy rankings, he reduces it to a simple daily task. “I just try to improve my game from match to match. There are still things I need to work on.”
First NHL Goal and Family Presence
Stat sheets say he piled up assists before finally scoring that first NHL goal, and he admits the wait got to him. “I wanted to score in every game, but it doesn’t always work out. Thank God I did it against Minnesota. When I scored, I felt relief. Finally, it happened.” There was even a sense of premonition that night. “The score was 2–2, and I thought, ‘I have to do something.’ I got the puck from Connor Bedard, went one-on-one and scored.”
He laughs when told he attacked more like a forward than a defenseman on that play. “Ha-ha, yeah, kind of.” The coaches give him the green light to jump into the rush as long as he remembers his responsibilities. “They don’t forbid defensemen from joining the attack. The main thing is not to forget to work in the defensive zone.”
The messages after that first goal poured in from across the hockey world, but he highlights familiar names: “Mikhail Grabovski texted. We’re regularly in touch. Alexei and Ilya Protas also congratulated me.”
The goal meant even more because his mother and brother were in the stands. “They came for a couple of weeks when we had a six-game home stand. My family doesn’t come often; they have jobs back in Belarus.” His brother Kirill’s story lingers behind his own. “He played and played, then got drafted into the army. After serving a year and a half, he decided to become a coach. He’d finished university with the right degree, and now he works at Shakhtyor Soligorsk’s school.”
Self-Assessment, Role, and Mentors
Asked to rate his season, Levshunov neither downplays nor inflates his performance. “Let’s say seven or eight out of ten.” He has personal benchmarks in mind but refuses to spell them out. “I do have a statistical goal, but I won’t name the exact number. I just want to get as many points as possible.”
What matters, he insists, is not chasing minimum thresholds but striving for something closer to his ceiling. “I don’t think about a minimum. I want to aim for the maximum – score and assist as much as possible – but play the right way, for the team. Chicago’s results are above everything.”
Head coach Jeff Blashill sees him developing into an offensive defenseman, and Levshunov feels that evolution himself. “Everything is going fine. With every game, I feel more confident. We keep working.” That offensive instinct has deep roots in the players he studied growing up. “As a kid, I followed (Alex) Ovechkin more. Later, I focused on defensemen – on Cale Makar when he came into the NHL, on Erik Karlsson. I also watched Shea Weber, who was great in Nashville and then moved to Montreal.”
Now that he is on NHL ice, he remains loyal to the attacking style. “There are a lot of great players here. There are no bad ones in the NHL. I’d point out Victor Hedman in Tampa – he’s so big, you can’t get past him. I also like Seth Jones in Florida. We played together in Chicago before his trade and trained together in the summer. Mostly, I’m drawn to offensive defensemen like Makar or Quinn Hughes in (formerly) Vancouver.”
Ovechkin, Records, and Quiet Pressure
The boy who once watched Ovechkin from afar has already faced him in the NHL and is waiting for another chance. “We haven’t played them yet this season. We met last year. I wanted to see him off the ice, but it didn’t work out. I only met Alexei Protas before the game. Ovechkin was busy. I hope we meet this season. I want to talk to him.” That meeting has a clear, almost childlike objective. “A stick from him would be great. That’s one of my goals for the season. I’d even say it’s the main goal.”
He is already a record-holder himself, having surpassed Ruslan Salei as the highest-drafted Belarusian in NHL history. The new status does not weigh him down; it sharpens his focus. “It motivates me, of course. I have to live up to it.”
In less than a year and a half since the draft, Chicago has cycled through three head coaches – Luke Richardson, Anders Sorensen, and Blashill – but Levshunov treats the coaching carousel as just another constant to adjust to. “It’s fine. Whoever coaches, my job doesn’t change. I need to fulfill the requirements.”
Life in the Room and Team Hierarchy
On the road, Levshunov shares a room most often with teammates of his own age. “Usually with Colton Dach or another young guy like me, Oliver Moore. Sometimes they put me in a single room, although that’s usually for the more experienced guys, and I still have a rookie contract.” The dressing room, though, clearly belongs to the veterans, especially when it comes to jokes and atmosphere. “Tyler Bertuzzi and Nick Foligno are the main jokers. Those guys are older and can afford a lot.”
He laughs at the comparison of Chicago’s history with gangsters and the modern-day Blackhawks. “Ha-ha, true. But the city is calm now.” If the team has a “local Al Capone,” he nominates the captain. “I’d say Foligno. Nick is the captain, responsible for the atmosphere in the locker room.”
That status didn’t spare Foligno from being the target of rookie humor at the team’s initiation party in Tampa, where the first-years were the butt of most jokes but got their chance to respond. “At the rookie party in Tampa, the young guys took some hits, but we tried not to stay in debt. Every rookie had to tell a joke about any player. I picked Foligno, and said, ‘You’re getting old, maybe this is your last season.’”
The captain took it the way a seasoned pro should. “He reacted calmly. He understood it was a joke. I hope Nick continues playing, but it’s his decision.” The financial hierarchy of the team was also clear that night. “The veterans paid for everything. They probably used the common fund we regularly contribute to.”
Adaptation to North America and Daily Life
Levshunov has been in North America long enough that it now feels familiar rather than foreign. “Everything’s fine; I’ve gotten used to it. I focus on hockey.” The hardest part at the beginning wasn’t the rink but the world around it. “The language was toughest. I knew English at a school level and had to improve it. And the mentality and culture are different here. People in America seem more free.”
He lives in the city and handles growing recognition with ease. “Yes, I rent an apartment right in town. People recognize me, but it’s not like they don’t let me pass. I can go out for a walk calmly.” His downtime sounds as deliberately ordinary as possible for a player trying not to burn energy away from the rink. “I rest, nothing special. I can go to a sauna or to dinner with the guys. On flights, I sleep or listen to music. I don’t play cards like some of them.”
Roots, Toughness, and Comparisons
Levshunov’s youth coach Sergei Rimashevsky had called him a kind, modest kid whose only flaw was excessive humility, and Levshunov partially agrees. “Maybe. But that’s in everyday life. On the ice, it’s different. There, you have to be reasonably cheeky and aggressive.”
He is not looking to become a heavyweight enforcer, yet he is ready when the game demands it. “If someone wants to fight, no problem. We’ll drop the gloves. I don’t fight much, but if needed, why not?” To stay ready, he adds some boxing to his off-season routine. “I also box, but only in the summer. We go with the guys to a boxing coach.”
Over time, coaches and specialists have reached for big names to describe his style. Rimashovsky said Levshunov reminded him of Viacheslav Fetisov, and the defenseman does not reject the comparison. “Maybe we really do have a lot in common.” Another coach, Mikhail Zakharov, once said Belarus was raising a second Paul Coffey, a name that initially went past the young player. “Who?” When told Coffey once scored 48 goals in a season as a defenseman, his ambition flickers openly. “I’d like to score that many, too.”
National Team, Other Sports, and Big Dreams
He follows other sports casually but selectively. “Sometimes I watch soccer, basketball, American football. At first, American football seemed boring to me, but over time it became interesting. From individual sports, I like tennis. I follow how Aryna Sabalenka is doing.” In soccer, his attention is pulled toward stars and emerging talents. “I mostly watch Lionel Messi’s team, Inter Miami. I also like how Lamine Yamal plays for Barcelona.”
When the conversation turns to the far future, he frames his dreams in simple, concrete milestones. “The main goal is the Stanley Cup. Success at the Olympics is also very important. And I want to play a lot, have a full career.” The numbers he tosses out afterward are said with a smile but reveal how high he is willing to aim. “Reaching a thousand NHL games? God willing, there will be more. Scoring a thousand goals and a thousand assists would also be nice.”
But if staying within reasonable figures, Levshunov has all the tools to become a recognizable figure for the Blackhawks.
