A quote from the Levshunov thread since I think he did a good summary of the article.
The article kid of made me excited at the potential and weary that his ceiling may not be as high as the others if his success is driven by his physical maturity.
Can you imagine saying something like that with Fantilli last year, who's also an October birth date?
Looking at Lev's EP career stats, it's dubious that physical maturity is the sole reason Lev looks good on an NCAA team where he's the youngest d-man on the team. Lev was an OFD who has been learning to play defense for the past two seasons on NA ice since coming from Belarus. He had a -15 rating in the USHL and the 6th best scorer last year. Why didn't Lev dominate at that lower level of competition?
Lev put in work between the USHL and NCAA summer, apparently, to be that physically mature. Mac did the same thing of working on his body since the OHL shutdown.
From THN Future Watch 2023
2024 Projected top-10 (pg 89)
#4. Dickinson.
Scout says, "Well-rounded, does a lot of things well. He's going to be a big-bodied guy with good reach and lenght. He'll bring compete, play tough match-ups, chip in offensively. I like the package. I like the potential."
#6. Lev
Scout says, "It's the calm and presence he has at his age. He doesn't seem to get rattled or nervous. He's playing as if he was a 19-year old veteran in the league [USHL], which is tough for a defenseman."
Dickinson was denoted for having a big body, but Lev's report didn't cite his body as a main focus. Lev's report denoted his poise.
Flash forward to Feb 13, 2024, when
the Athletic had an article on Lev, interviewing Lev's NCAA coach Nightingale.
What’s impressed you about Levshunov and how he’s evolved this year?
He has size and physicality to his game. He’s got a big-time poise with the puck. I just think his willingness to learn and and he’s still growing, but to play both ends of the rink. I think when we’re talking about defensemen, that’s one of the hardest things with young talent and D is obviously you want them to be involved but also the importance and value in defending, and he does. You look at how many plays he ends with his physicality. You’re talking about a guy that teams are looking at taking that high, you want to be able to play him 25 minutes a night, and he’s one of those guys.
Were you able to trust him early or how has that come on?
Pretty early on he played a fair amount. But I think you’re talking about a young player, so he’s got to play through some mistakes, and our job is to coach them and hold them accountable, but that’s kind of how you learn and grow. In practice, you can see him improving every single day, extremely hard worker and committed kid. If you watch him now, you’re pretty impressed with his growth.
Lev's size and physicality are introduced first by his head coach. Then Lev's poise. In the second question response, the head coach is identifying Lev's growth from the start of the season to then. That aligns with people showing Lev's 2nd NCAA game and denoting all the bad things, but then never come back to revisit how Lev is playing now.
But that fact the head coach identifies Lev is committed and a hard worker, that should increase Lev's potential. We've seen guys blessed with physical maturity in Ritchie and Comtois, but their lack of commitment and hard work became their ultimate demise. Lev is redefining himself as a physical, two-way D; not just a OFD.
man... if he gets picked before our pick... it's gonna suck! hahahhah
