CHICAGO — Louis Crevier couldn’t wait to go looking at places to live in Chicago on Saturday. He had a couple neighborhoods in mind, but just the fact he’d be living somewhere that wasn’t a hotel excited him.
Crevier’s last few seasons were spent between Rockford and Chicago. He played 24 games with the Blackhawks and 41 games with the IceHogs two seasons ago and then 32 in Chicago and 15 in Rockford last season. He rented a place by himself in Rockford last season, but he was barely in it. When he was in Chicago, the Blackhakws put him up in a hotel. After nearly five months of hotel living last season, Crevier was ready for something more permanent this season.
“Just small things like not cooking and not ordering stuff,” the 24-year-old Crevier said. “Over the long haul, it’s kind of tough.”
Crevier spent the Blackhawks training camp living in the hotel again. It seemed likely he’d stick with the Blackhawks out of camp, especially with him requiring waivers this season, but it wasn’t a guarantee. But after he did make the team and has consistently been in the lineup over the season’s opening weeks, Crevier was given the green light to move out of the hotel and into his own place.
That in itself speaks to how far Crevier has come as a player in recent years. When the Blackhawks drafted him in the seventh round in 2020, it was on the recommendation of Quebec scout Alexandre Rouleau. Crevier was raw in a lot of ways, but he had two intriguing NHL characteristics as a defenseman. He was 6-foot-8 and he could skate well. It’s interesting now to look back at what Crevier’s QMJHL general manager coach said of him in 2020.
“This is the kind of defenseman you win with in the playoffs,” Yanick Jean said in 2020. “You know, those resistant, don’t-miss games, they don’t get injured. Every year, there’s that kind of defenseman, (Colton) Parayko with St. Louis, guys like that. It’s not like they make a ton of points, but they’re so effective and even more in the playoffs. He’s going to play. I could not understand he was not picked before that.”
Louis Crevier has worked to develop reliability in his puck-moving. (Rich Gagnon / Getty Images)
Jean was obviously somewhat biased, but he’s also been proven right. Crevier has played in the NHL and could continue playing in the NHL for a while. Among seventh-round draft picks, that’s rare. With 62 NHL games under his belt, Crevier has played more NHL games than any seventh-rounder in his draft class and only six seventh-rounders have played more than him since 2016.
But that’s not really the story about Crevier any longer. Him being a seventh-round pick and being one of the tallest players in the NHL were what often had people talking about him in the past. It was like, hey, look at this tall guy who was drafted late. Now, it’s more like, hey, look at this tall, effective defenseman. (He’s probably never going to get away from being labeled tall.)
One of the main reasons why first-year Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill has gone to playing 11 forwards and seven defensemen so often this season and plans to continue is partly because he developed a trust in Crevier. Instead of having Crevier as the seventh defenseman, which Crevier was in the season opener, Blashill and assistant coach Anders Sorensen, who is responsible for the defensemen, thought they could tap into Crevier’s strengths and have him support some of the group’s weaknesses. Creiver mainly gets ice time in defensive zone situations. Whether it’s on the penalty kill or a defensive zone faceoff, Crevier will often hear his name called to get on the ice and be expected to shut down the opposition’s offense. That’s trust.
Crevier has fared well in that role. He often replaces Connor Murphy on the right side on the penalty kill and is close to two minutes of shorthanded ice time per game. At five-on-five, he has the lowest offensive zone faceoff starting percentage at 24.4. But despite his large defensive usage, the Blackhawks are outscoring opponents 4-2 with him on the ice.
Crevier had one of his best games of the season in Sunday’s 2-1 overtime win over the Anaheim Ducks. Analytically, the Blackhawks had a 53.51 expected goals percentage with him in five-on-five. But more than that, he was constantly breaking up scoring chances, taking pucks from the Ducks and winning board battles. He did it with his long arms and stick. He did it with his body and physicality. From his draft year, he’s put on nearly 25 pounds and currently weighs 240 pounds. When the Ducks had a two-on-one rush in the first period, Crevier dropped to the ice to make himself as big as possible as he skidded toward the Blackhawks net and it ended up being his leg that got a piece of an attempted pass and broke up a chance.
“He’s a six-foot, gigantic guy who can skate pretty well,” Blashill recently said. “My gut is his skating has improved. I can’t say that for certain, but we’ve done some drills to put D in tough spots, and his skating actually has been really good. At that point, you’re kind of a really good defender if you have good body position, good sticks. He’s done a really good job in the kill from day one. When we talk about seven (D), that gives us guys like Murphy and Louis that specialize in the kill, and then you have the other two right-shot D — with (Artyom) Levshunov and (Sam) Rinzel — who specialize on the power play. That’s a good balance there. Louis getting in (a fight recently) was great for Louis, too. It shows he’s got that physicality and is going to bring more of that edge. If he can bring that to his game, at that size, you could be a really good player.”
No player probably knows Crevier better than Alex Vlasic. Crevier and Vlasic were defenseman partners with the IceHogs before they arrived at the Blackhawks.
“It’s all about his confidence,” Vlasic said. “I think he’s got all the tools. He can skate so well for somebody as big as he is. I don’t want to pump his tires too much. (Vlasic said, smiling while looking at Crevier.) But yeah, he’s been great. I think defensively, that’s his strong suit, and over the years, he has definitely gotten better in that way, just being hard to play against, being physical and strong. But you can tell offensively, he is taking strides in that away, and it’s fun to see. I think he’s really just becoming a completely different player and every single year it seems like he’s getting better and better.”
Crevier has worked to develop reliability in his puck-moving. It’s one thing to be a shutdown defenseman, but you still got to be able to help get the puck out of the defensive zone and move it within the offensive zone. On that rare chance, he’s open to carrying it himself to the net, too. He nearly scored on a mini-breakaway a few games ago.
“I wish I had that one,” Crever said of his goal-scoring opportunity in a tie game on Friday. “I would have celly’d probably for that one. I don’t celly too much.”
When it comes to Crevier’s comfort now in the NHL, there’s something to not feel out of place either. That wasn’t always the case for him. It’s different now.
“I feel way more comfortable being here,” Crevier said. “I don’t put too much stress on myself just because I feel more confident. I’m kind of in the mindset that if I make a mistake, I’ll make it 100 percent instead of second-guessing and just playing not to make mistakes. I think that helps. … Especially in my first year I got called up, it was almost like I didn’t belong with all the NHL guys. But I’m changing that mindset to I belong here.”