position, to begin in the broadest of strokes — a RHD with a well rounded toolkit — is always an attractive piece, and when that’s combined with his size (6’2 and 209 pounds at just 18 years old), and his mobility (good mobility not just for his size, but in general), that makes for an eye catching package.
And speaking of eye catching, his production in his freshman season at Michigan State certainly qualifies. With his 35 points in 38 games played, he led the Spartans in scoring, again, as a freshman defenseman, and that’s huge. Generally that point per game mark in the NCAA is something teams look for as an indication that a player is ready to graduate to the professional level, and Levshunov has already just about hit it (and done so on a team which hasn’t offered him
There’s a lot to like about his offensive toolkit, generally. He’s helped along by his passing ability — which is clean and crisp — as well as his shot — which is hard and accurate — but the real core of his strength is his confidence, how often he’s willing to lead a rush by carrying the puck, or activate in the offensive zone to get more directly involved in the cycle. His feel for the game, his sense, is really unmatched among his teammates, for one, and his creativity combined with that confidence has been a real driving factor in his success.
For a big defenseman, he’s elusive, both deeper in-zone and at the point, which is an asset to his strictly offensive game, but we see is strength in skating helping him in really all areas of his game. His stride is smooth and he has good power behind it, and he cuts well in all four directions (meaning he isn’t often caught flat-footed). This allows him to be quick to gap up defensively on the rush, and also plays a bit part in his success in transition, broadly.
Because he is impactful in a number of ways in transition — not just that he has a good first pass, or is confident enough to begin rushes skating the puck out on his own (both of which are true, of course), but we also see it in how often he’s able to force turnovers, or win races to loose pucks, and then transition from defense to offense, and how quickly he gets actively involved in that rush, even when the puck is out of his hands.
In addition to that, he plays quite a physical game — something that can be a bit tough in college, with how tightly games are called, but he’s already generally hit the sort of sweet spot for walking the line of playing the game with a good physical edge, without crossing over it. This physicality, combined with his overall strength, has made him a solid defender in front of his own net, as well.
And for those more visually inclined, below you’ll find a really excellent breakdown of some of the minutia of his game, as it manifested in a pair of Michigan State’s games at Penn State this season.
