Happy Friday all,
Instead of doing work to maximize shareholder value, I've been spending my valuable time doing research on the prospect scoring metrics done by EPRinkside on the Blackhawks prospect pool, which I'll share below.
However, there was a glaring theme/omission in the rankings that I kept noticing, so I did some further digging.
Alex Vlasic has been criminally underrated as a prospect since being drafted.
See where Vlasic comes in below, his ranking in parentheses:
EPRinkside: 2019 (15th), 2020 (NR), 2021 (NR), 2022 (NR), 2023 (NR)
Corey Pronman: 2019 (7th), 2020 (NR), 2021 (15th), 2022 (5th), 2023 (NR)
Scott Wheeler: 2019 (N/A), 2020 (NR), 2021 (15th), 2022 (17th), 2023 (13th)
Chad Krys, Nicolas Beaudin, Ian Mitchell, Adam Boqvist, Lucas Carlsson, Jakub Galvas, Alec Regula, Wyatt Kalynuk, Wyatt Kaiser, Ethan Del Mastro, Nolan Allen, and Isaak Phillips have all been ranked above him at some point in time between 2019 and this past season when Vlasic became a full-time NHLer.
Heading into the 2019 draft, scouts, at least publicly, were pretty high on him. Corey Pronman had him as his 24th ranked prospect, Chris Peters; 28th, and Bob McKenzie; 29th; so it's not to say as if he was underrated, if anything getting him at 43rd overall might've been a bit of a steal.
Since becoming a full-time NHLer, we've seen ourselves as fans of the team how defensively dominant Vlasic has been, with the numbers and analytics to back it up.
Harman Dayal had a great write-up about the NHL's best shutdown defensemen, where according to the criteria, Alex Vlasic was rated as the 2nd best shutdown defenseman in the entire league. Hayal had this to say about Vlasic:
"Speaking of impressive defensive results on a bad team, Alex Vlasic has overtaken Seth Jones as the Blackhawks’ best blueliner. Vlasic’s combo of a 6-foot-6 frame and excellent skating is a nightmare for attackers to navigate around. He covers so much space and closes gaps exceptionally quickly with his reach and feet. The 22-year-old left-shot has logged the most minutes against “elite” competition of all Chicago defenders. Despite difficult top pair usage, Vlasic is driving the best expected goal share on the entire team (forwards included). Chicago has a near break-even goal differential during Vlasic’s minutes but has a whopping minus-73 goal differential when he’s on the bench at five-on-five."
Dayal also had him ranked as his 6th most-improved player this season, in which he had this to say:
"Drafted No. 43 in 2019, there weren’t many who pictured Vlasic as a future top-four defenseman. Vlasic’s already shattered his perceived ceiling, emerging as the Blackhawks’ No. 1 defender on the left side. Some would even argue he’s been the club’s best defenseman period.
Vlasic is developing into an excellent shutdown player. He’s driving elite defensive numbers relative to his teammates and it’s translating on the scoreboard. The 22-year-old owns a plus-nine goal differential at five-on-five (the team’s only defender in positive territory), including a sparkling 1.92 goals-against-per-60 rate, which is remarkable considering how bad Chicago is. It’s all the more impressive when you remember that he plays some of the hardest minutes on the blue line, matching up against top players."
Coach Richardson had this to say about his young defenseman when asked if he would've been a Calder contender this season if he had played one less game in 2022-23:
“We think so, that’s how much we value him. He’s played top matchups every game all year. Big minutes. He’s playing physical and he moves the puck very well. We just love how he plays, his composure, now he’s starting to show some of the maturity already on the bench and on the ice, taking charge, talking to the forwards about certain situations."
To be honest, I've started to lose steam with this, but suffice to say, we've got ourselves a real keeper in hometown kid Alex Vlasic!
And, as promised, a table of the current Blackhawks prospect pool with scoring based on EPRinkside:
Thank you for allowing me to ramble. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
by oldirtymaxwell
3 Comments
It’s because for whatever reason the league doesn’t appreciate offense as much as defense. BUT, he does have it in him to produce, he’s had some sweet cross ice passes. I’ve said it all along, he plays like a younger hedman and wants he gets his point total over 35 points he’s going to jump into that top 10 territory. The way he play on THAT team in his first full season is pretty special. No reason to believe he won’t take the next step. Obviously the Blackhawks saw it too because they wrapped him up real quick with that extension.
Awesome mini-writeup here. Vlasic was such a bright spot last season that I definitely didn’t expect…
To everyone blindly trusting my analysis on Demidov > Levshunov, I wasn’t even sure Vlasic would be in the NHL due to his questionable puck skills. He’s arguably the best defenseman on our team and was ranked the #2 shutdown Dman in the entire league last season.
Do you own research, because who knows? Levshunov could turn out just as good 👀
Alex Vlasic appreciation you say? Take my upvote.