Chicago Blackhawks 2025-26 Player Grades: Artyom Levshunov

The Chicago Blackhawks finished their 2025-26 campaign 31st in the league, with a record of 29-39-14 and 72 points. It was an improvement from last season’s totals of 25-46-11 (61 points), but the organization had more progress in mind when they embarked on this campaign. The good news is the Blackhawks finished with more wins and more points than the previous season. They also feel they’ve taken positive strides in the growth and development of a plethora of young players, who could be a big part of a more successful future.

In this summer series, we’ll hand out individual grades to every player on the team. Today we highlight defenseman Artyom Levshunov.

Levshunov’s Season Stats

2 goals, 22 assists, 24 points, minus-41 in 68 games played. Average time on ice (ATOI) of 19:35 minutes, shoots right

45.7 Corsi For Percentage (at Even Strength) (CF%), 75 blocked shots, 98 hits, 16 takeaways, 88 giveaways, 44 penalty minutes

Contract Status: Entry-Level Contract (ELC) runs through the 2026-27 season, $975,000 cap hit

Season Overview

For such a young defenseman like Levshunov, the challenge all season long was to balance contributing offensively while still being responsible in the defensive end. It was a mixed bag for the 2024 second overall draft pick. The 20-year-old started the season playing pretty well defensively, although he was also sheltered by head coach Jeff Blashill deploying a seven-defenseman lineup most nights.

Former teammate and veteran defensive forward Jason Dickinson knows a thing or two about going up against good defensemen, as well as what it takes to play good defense. Early in the season (on Dec. 6) he gave a good assessment of Levshunov and what his strengths are.

For Arty, the big thing is to learn that he’s got great legs, he’s strong, and he can out muscle guys. And the more he keeps doing that, the more he’s going to learn where his spacing is to do those sorts of things … He created a couple of exits because he’s strong on the puck. He uses his legs and he trusts himself to get himself out of tight spots, because he is a strong kid that can do those things.

Coach Blashill concurred. After a practice on Jan. 6, he said,

He’s so strong too, that even when he gets himself in trouble, sometimes in high ice, and I get really nervous, he seems to win the puck back and does all that stuff. It’s amazing, actually, because he is really, really strong. So we want to see him push his game that way and see what that ceiling looks like … So I think Arty he’s got that powerful skating stride, he can be involved offensively and keep pushing that envelope, and then just win that race back to our end.

But once Levshunov started to attack the game more offensively, it wasn’t always pretty on the defensive end. For all the good things he did offensively, he made a lot of glaring defensive mistakes. Levshunov was on the ice for a lot of goals against; his minus-41 plus/minus rating was by far the worst on the team. That will certainly need to be remedied next season.

On the positive side, Levshunov’s 22 assists led all defensemen and were tied with Andre Burakovsky for fourth on the team. His 24 points were second among D-men only to Louis Crevier (25 points). Yes, the Belarusian native had some trouble scoring goals. But it wasn’t for lack of trying. His 84 shots on net were third among blueliners after Crevier (114 shots) and Alex Vlasic (86 shots). The Blackhawks have been working with Levshunov on his shot mechanics to help him more in this area.

Levshunov’s 98 hits ranked second on the team and his 75 blocked shots ranked fourth. He also served as the quarterback on the top power play unit throughout much of the season. He was rather successful there, with 10 of his assists and 11 of his points coming on the man advantage. Below is his lone power play goal, one of just two goals on the season.

Levshunov on the power play🔥 pic.twitter.com/LM2JH4UYcx

— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) January 2, 2026

Finally, after veteran D-man Connor Murphy was traded to the Edmonton Oilers at the trade deadline, Blashill started ulilizing Levshunov on the penalty kill. This added an additional responsibility for the young defenseman to manage.

In an attempt to help Levshunov process suggested areas of growth, the Blackhawks sat him out the last three games before the Olympic Break for a “reset”, as they called it. After the break, the defenseman seemed to respond well. On Mar. 8 versus the Dallas Stars where Levshunov contributed an assist, he gave some insight into what the coaches were asking of him. “I was focusing more on my defensive side, different parts of my physicality, more physical and skating the puck. And protect the puck with my body. I think those things are way better now. But I continue to work.”

Unfortunately, Levshunov suffered a fracture to his left hand that caused him to miss the last nine games of the season. This put a damper on his efforts to end the campaign on a high note. As the season wound down, Coach Blashill kept stressing how much Levshunov could accomplish over the summer if he committed to putting in the work. It’s safe to say this offseason will be very important for his continued growth and development.

Quotable Quote

Despite all Levshunov’s inconsistencies, Blashill gave this assessment of his season overall:

I thought he made great, great strides. Obviously, he stacked up too many minuses. But if you look at where he started and where he was a year ago, the age he’s trying to play the hardest position in, the rawness of which he was when we drafted him. When we teach him stuff, when we show him stuff, he goes out and does it. His hockey instincts are really, really good. He still needs to learn how to connect the dots directionally at times, in terms of following systematic directions or things like that. But he already is a way better player today than he was at the beginning of the year, and I think there’s going to be continued growth with him.

Levshunov’s Final Grade: B-

It’s important to remember Levshunov is only 20 years old and he’s still a very raw prospect. He has a long way to go to become a solid defenseman who can also contribute offensively, as he was drafted to do. But he has the tools and the skills to have a super high ceiling. The question remains whether he can put it all together, and just how long that will take.