Detailing Artyom Levshunov's Cornerstone Skill
How he can become an excellent possession oriented offensive zone defender with off-puck movement, weak-side activations and forward tracking through the neutral zone
My last preview was an examination on the tracking data between Artyom Levshunov and Zeev Buium. I didn’t really go into the deeper examinations of actual on-ice play but just strove to add examples that shed light onto the tracked data.
This breakdown is going to be a little bit different.
I’m a fan of Artyom Levshunov the player. As a high draft pick, there are certainly gaps in his performance that could give a team pause. I mentioned previously how I love prospects with high end hockey sense and who have tentpole skills. At first blush, it doesn’t seem like he really has any of that.
By the tracked stats it’s hard to see any position where he’s truly stellar or that would give a manager confidence that he develops into a Elite Defenseman in the NHL (like recent Top 5 picks like: Cale Makar, Miro Heiskanen, Jake Sanderson, Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, Luke Hughes, Šimon Nemec). He’s not a wizard in transition, he’s just good with flashes of better, he’s not a wizard offensively, he’s just good with flashes of better, he’s probably not even “good” at defending in his own zone, though he also has flashes.
At best, that looks like a collection of pretty good wrapped in a bundle of questionable motor, sense and consistency. Not the recipe for a player who some see as the best defensive prospect since Rasmus Dahlin.
Last time, I detailed all of the reasons those defining characteristics could have been covered by his system at Michigan State or his year-to-year system transitioning.
In examining the tape this past season, I do believe he may have a collection of skills that could certainly be his “tentpole.” At the level of fundamentals, I think he’s got great nimble skating for his size and that’s the skill he potentially leverages the most in these situations.
Levshunov may never be elite in his own zone but he still may become a play driver with good defensive impacts because he’ll have the skillset that keeps the puck away from his net. He’ll do most of his defending inside of the offensive zone.
Offensive zone defending is only one component of a true puck-moving ice-tilter and there’s still got a lot of room to grow in terms of his puck poise and decision making (both critical .
The hallmark of his game could be possession security through pinching, exit killing and off-puck activation.
Exit Kill and Pinching
Defensemen who work to influence the opposition transition attack before it can build speed may be the future of the defense position. That’s not to say elite athletes and defensive geniuses won’t work in other ways, there’s room for plenty of different high quality stoppers in the modern game.
If you haven’t already, definitely check out Darryl Belfry’s tweet about Pavel Mintyukov above.
This skillset and activity is the thesis of the Florida Panther’s defense corps and, specifically, the hallmark of their best defenseman Gustav Forsling.
Paul Maurice encourages pressure as early as possible on puck reception. Why? Because then the opposition can’t make high quality plays straight down the ice. The DNA of this early pressure runs through the entire team (nowhere else would Niko Mikkola activate the way he does) and it runs through Artyom Levshunov as well.
Pay special attention to the time at which FLA42, Gustav Forsling, moves in this clip.
First he attaches low in the zone, near the top of the circles, but still on top of his check. His head is up and he’s reading the play. Then, he times his movement as Drew Doughty looks to make an exit pass.
Levshunov’s top of the o zone movement is quite similar. In fact, both Florida and Michigan State play an offensive zone game that is at times almost exclusively below-dots focused.
Levshunov’s movement doesn’t discourage the Minnesota defensemen from making the wall breakout pass, and his pinch isn’t ultimately successful, but the pattern of play is highly encouraging. He understands the objectives of the breakout and knows his role in stopping it.
Despite Levshunov’s failed pinch, the movement and indirect nature of the puck buys time for all of his teammates to reload and track through the middle of the neutral zone.
It’s exactly the kind of thinking espoused by Paul Maurice by way of Emily Kaplan. The gameplan is to play aggressively and on your toes. If you’re getting beat behind your back layer the solution isn’t to back off and get in front of the stretching forwards but to neuter the offense at the point of the attack.
Speed matters little before it has time to build. Though your instinct may be to react to the event at it’s source, the solution, as Maurice found, is usually elsewhere upstream.
Here, Levshunov shows some interesting activation ideas though his downstream execution leaves something to be desired.
First, his follow up to find soft ice following the entry is fantastic. Now, at least to me, it did look like the spin around pass was to his teammate. That being said, his reception and position were far more secure than what might have been the intended recipient.
That being said, he didn’t really follow up his safe reception with great habits. The intended pass to the slot is certainly the idea, and a backhand at the right spot (followed by instant release) might be the highest end solution, but he should have opened his hips and eyes to the play.
Then, he may have found a more accurate or dangerous angle for the pass or recognized the impending coverage and been able to put a shot on net for potential rebound for his downhill forward.
The point, though, comes after. He tracks back through the middle and stays on top of forwards and then reads the play to aggressively pressure the puck retrieval. His low motor makes his intended pressure and hit not as effective as it could have been but he still pressured the exit pass and undermined the total transition speed.
Michigan State still has numbers back for the defense and is able to pressure the carrier at reception. Levshunov’s decision to activate, in both cases, served to put his team in an overall better situation despite the lack of top-level execution.
Forward Skating Neutral Zone
Another technique that Florida weilded to high success was utilizing forward skating in the neutral zone as a way to cover ice and maintain tight gaps. There are a few different types of forward skating.
The first, is the weak-side fold. When the breakout goes up the wall, the weakside defensemen “surfs” over, usually through their “short porch” (the upper middle ice above the circles), and attacks on an arc to quickly pressure a vulnerable forward while maintaining appropriate speed.
Weak-side Circle Position
The first important characteristic of this structure is weak-side positioning. If the defenseman is inactive, they won’t have the necessary speed to threaten the breakout. Here, Florida and Levshunov demonstrate this positioning well.
This clip is not an example of the weak-side fold but it does demonstrate up-ice weak-side positioning. Instead of the puck exiting up the strong-side it changed sides and Ekblad became a strong-side defender.
Ekblad let his forwards play and then stepped up once he read a potential for possession change.
Levshunov’s clip starts from a big of a different sequence. He shows excellent weak-side availability on his neutral activation and then a good route post-entry to find a potential 2v1 against UM73 (if the pass to MSU28 is completed).
Still, the puck ends up loose in the corner and then Levshunov is now the weak-side defenseman in an ambiguous possession situation.
Both Levshunov and Ekblad show the necessary starting position for a potential weak-side fold and show similar behavior in reading their forward and allowing them to pressure into the corner rather than pinching too early.
The sequence ends quite differently. Levshunov retreats to the blueline and stays in motion to support the play. Ultimately securing a loose puck and moving it into/through the slot.
Surfing Short Porch
Oliver Ekman-Larsson is a prolific user of the weak-side fold and his success in Florida should be the case-in-point of the utility of forward skating/tracking through the neutral zone.
When the puck moves up the strong-side towards Dmitry Kulikov, Ekman-Larsson makes sure to keep a tight gap with his check so that he can’t contest his speed and keep him out of the middle of the ice.
In the end, OEL breaks up the Kings’ possession with a wall rub-out in his own zone.
In this clip, Levshunov also attaches to his check very early and executes the weak-side fold. He stays perhaps too engaged physically with UM6(Joshua Ernisse), who is an incredibly strong player, instead of just trying to win the race, and the downstream events are quite chaotic.
Still, Levshunov’s off-puck speed neutralization is a great habit.
Track Through Middle At Speed
Here’s a situation where Oliver Ekman-Larsson moved for a weak-side activation but tracked back through the middle after a change of possession. Because he was in motion he was able to convert his speed into the middle track.
Florida Panthers defensemen don’t skate forward without a purpose. They do it to take away the middle and to angle the attack to the outside while maintaining speed and maneuverability. They don’t hurry up to pivot and back skate, they instead prefer to be at the right gap at the right time.
In the above clip, Oliver Ekman-Larsson tracked through the middle and matched weakside speed.
In this clip, Levshunov’s tracking serves to angle his check towards the boards but he’s also prepared to maintain his speed and win the race for the high-degree of difficulty and incomplete crosslane pass by UM91 (Frank Nazar).
The events afterward are unfortunate, you’d love to see a creative handling puck reception and more poise, but that’s also excellent awareness from UM73(Ethan Edwards) and very eager play from the MSU forwards.
Here’s a significantly more involved shift from Levshunov that showcases his capacity to cover ice in backchecking and tracking scenarios.
First, we get a look at more off-puck pinches and weak-side activations and how they help Levshunov maintain possession in the offensive zone. He uses weak-side motion to threaten the backline of Michigan’s in-zone defensive structure and keeps his speed to have first priority to pucks steered wide. His timing on these moves is excellent.
On recovery of these pucks, he is often too eager to move the puck quickly but he’s at the very least aware of the location of his teammates and gives them the puck early.
After the second pinch-recovery he dashes back to cover the threat of Frank Nazar, moves up ice again on change of possession but finds the middle ice too late to get a dangerous shot away. The excellent awareness and stick work of UM4, Gavin Brindley, doesn’t help either.
From there, he reads danger and tracks through the middle of the ice. He arrives on time, kills the entry pass from Nazar to UM2, Rutger McGroarty, and recovers possession. It’s possible that a more fleet footed forward would have exposed him through the middle but the window to receive that pass would have still been small.
Levshunov scans up ice and chooses an indirect pass up the boards which may have been completed if not for a linesman’s skates or the excellent backchecking of Gavin Brindley.
Forward Skating Angle
This next forward skating technique works a bit differently than the previous techniques. In this case, Gustav Forsling demonstrates excellent footwork as he quickly closes space and pressures the zone exit while skating forward.
Notably, he doesn’t fully sell out in an all-or-nothing play kill but mitigates the risk of his aggressive pressure by approaching on an arc and putting his stick in the passing lane.
This downward arc angle with quality stick position is a very powerful tool at disrupting opposition exits and preventing offense before it can build.
Levshunov, in this clip, isn’t exposed in the same way Gustav Forsling was but it still shows his eagerness to attack exits with forward skating while at the same time utilizing an arc approach that doesn’t sell him out in case of a cleared puck.
Here is Forsling’s approach posture.
And here’s Leshunov’s. Both have a stick in the primary passing lane on outlet with skates, perpendicular to the boards, that are prepared to return to the neutral zone.
An additional difference being that Levshunov is right handed and crossing to the opposite side whereas Forsling is left handed, on an island, and also has the active stick to deny an additional passing lane.
Wrap Up
Levshunov, at this point, has the tools to become a potentially very good puck mover and neutral zone activator. When Levshunov is eagerly jumping into the play and skating forward, he’s at his best.
It’s in these moments where his hockey sense shines. He can read defenses (notice how he clocks Brindley in his passing lane and stays in motion through the read) and pull them out of shape before finding dangerous crosslane plays.
He canuse his athleticism to create space and motion on retrievals and follow them up with excellent transition opportunities.
He can jump on poor passes and create middle entries as well. Then, to top it all off, he’s got the instincts and techniques to do as much as a defenseman can to keep the puck in the offensive zone.
In the appropriate development program or NHL environment, Artyom Levshunov could be a high quality contributor and potentially elite 5v5 play driver.
Without significant improvement in consistency and in quality of defensive zone reads, Levshunov may never be a shutdown defenseman. If he plays to his strengths and continues to improve, he could make up for those lapses by keeping the puck away from his end.
That’s not to say there’s an easy road there or that this is a complete accounting of his weaknesses, but in the right hands he could be worthy of a high pick.
**Levshunov clips pulled from Prospect Shifts on Youtube, Deep Sea Hockey and NCAA Hockey Highlights from his games against the University of Michigan in the NCAA Regional Final, against Minnesota on 1/27, and the final highlight against Western Michigan in the NCAA Championship Regional Semi-final**
**Florida clips pulled by myself from ESPN**