{"id":531795,"date":"2026-03-19T00:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T00:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/531795\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T00:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T00:20:09","slug":"blackhawks-current-usage-of-nick-lardis-isnt-working-and-doesnt-make-sense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/531795\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackhawks’ current usage of Nick Lardis isn’t working and doesn’t make sense"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Blackhawks<\/a> called up rookie forward Nick Lardis after the trade deadline only to bury him in a fourth-line role, giving him less than 11 minutes of ice time per game.<\/p>\n

The usage doesn\u2019t make sense.<\/p>\n

Coach Jeff Blashill gave an interesting explanation Monday that it\u2019s easier for a player to establish himself in the NHL if he shows he can fit in all 12 forward spots, not just in the top six.<\/p>\n

Lardis demonstrating that \u201che can add offense without having to be on the ice with the very best players on the team\u201d would theoretically double his job prospects, Blashill said. He added that it\u2019s \u201chard to learn how to play 10 minutes a night when you\u2019re playing 20 minutes a night.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of that may be true. But it\u2019s not depth forwards whom the Hawks lack. They have plenty of those, and will likely find plenty more within their enormous prospect pool.<\/p>\n

The biggest thing actually holding the Hawks back right now is a lack of top-six forwards. On the current roster, they have approximately three legitimate top-sixers: Connor Bedard, Frank Nazar and Tyler Bertuzzi. <\/p>\n

They\u2019re seriously counting on top prospects Anton Frondell and Roman Kantserov both hitting, but that\u2019s not guaranteed, as promising as they appear to be.<\/p>\n

Right now, before Frondell and Kantserov\u2019s arrivals, why not try Lardis in a top-six role? This is the time to take risks, and the 20-year-old clearly has talent. He didn\u2019t rack up 117 points in the OHL last season and 32 points in 35 games in the AHL this season without it.<\/p>\n

Plus, from the Hawks\u2019 perspective, given how many lottery tickets they own, a prospect with a 30% chance of becoming a top-six forward and a 70% chance of busting is probably more valuable than one with a 70% chance of becoming a bottom-six forward and a 30% chance of busting.<\/p>\n

On defense, Blashill has actually embraced the importance of giving youngsters ample opportunity. On Tuesday against the Wild, he went as far as healthy-scratching steady veteran Matt Grzelcyk to get Ethan Del Mastro in the lineup.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s perplexing how unwilling he is to follow the same approach with forwards \u2014 particularly with veteran Andre Burakovsky, who\u2019s showing no signs of breaking out of his slump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Blashill mentioned he has double-shifted Bedard in Sam Lafferty\u2019s fourth-line center spot occasionally, giving Lardis a little time with the Hawks\u2019 star.<\/p>\n

However, Lardis simply isn\u2019t getting enough shifts in general \u2014 only 12 all game Tuesday, for example. And he\u2019s still spending most of his time with Lafferty and Landon Slaggert, who aren\u2019t exactly offensive facilitators.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not working well, either. The Hawks have been outscored 2-0 and outshot 21-8 \u2014 with an abysmal 8.8% expected-goals ratio \u2014 during Lardis\u2019 five-on-five ice time in five games since his call-up. Individually, he has just one shot (and it came on the power play).<\/p>\n

Compare that to Lardis\u2019 stats in 21 games in December and January<\/a>, largely while Bedard was injured: 13:39 of ice time per game, 32 shots on goal, five goals, 46.4% expected-goals ratio.<\/p>\n

Another comparison: Predators forward Luke Evangelista, a similar player to Lardis in many ways<\/a>, averaged a sizable 16:34 of ice time when called up for the final 24 games of the 2022-23 season.<\/p>\n

Evangelista tallied seven goals and eight assists during that trial run, earning a permanent NHL job, and he\u2019s now pacing for nearly 60 points in his fourth season in Nashville.<\/p>\n

Could the Hawks have a similar gem in Lardis? They\u2019ll only find out if they give him an opportunity to prove it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I do get my opportunity, [I want to make sure] I\u2019m taking full advantage of it and showing these little details to the coaches so they can trust me with more minutes,\u201d Lardis said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Little details<\/p>\n

To give the Hawks some credit, their staff is working diligently with Lardis to improve his skills and make him a more well-rounded player, despite his lack of in-game opportunities.<\/p>\n

Blashill mentioned Lardis \u201chas a natural tendency to not want to skate with the puck\u201d that the Hawks are trying to change. Lardis agreed with that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you get the puck as a younger guy, I don\u2019t want to say you panic, but you sometimes want to give it up right away,\u201d Lardis said.<\/p>\n

“[It\u2019s] about wanting the puck more on the breakout, skating with the puck and not deferring to just making a play standing still. It\u2019s something I\u2019ve got to keep continuing to get better at. There\u2019s been times where I feel like I\u2019ve done it and…opened space for myself and my teammates to make an easy play. And there\u2019s been times where I haven\u2019t, and I\u2019ve seen how it makes a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

During practices and video sessions, he\u2019s working on memorizing teammates\u2019 assigned routes on defensive-zone breakouts so he will instinctively know where they\u2019re going to be. That\u2019s something more NHL experience should help with.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also working on quick scans of the ice before he gets the puck. He appeared to do that during his last shift of the second period Tuesday, for example, and it allowed him and Lafferty to execute a smooth breakout.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have that awareness after a good scan to skate the puck, get out of the zone,\u201d Lardis said. \u201cYou\u2019re not just deferring to chipping it out or making a pass back to your \u2018D.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Blackhawks called up rookie forward Nick Lardis after the trade deadline only to bury him in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-531795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}