This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Frank Nazar
Chicago Blackhawks Center
12 goals in 53 games at 21, and the second-most important forward in the organisation.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-24 | CHI | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 50.0 | 16:09 |
| 2024-25 | CHI | 53 | 12 | 14 | 26 | -11 | 24 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 91 | 13.2 | 15:52 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 56 | 13 | 14 | 27 | -15 | 24 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 93 | 14.0 | 15:53 |
This Season So Far
The 2025-26 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
12 goals and 14 assists in 53 games for 26 points, minus-11, on 15:52 a night in his first NHL season, with a shorthanded goal.
43.3 per cent at five-on-five, the 9th percentile — which is a team number as much as a personal one. 91 shots in 53 games is a good volume for a rookie and 13.2 per cent is a fair rate.
The Finesse Game
The skating is the standout and it is genuinely elite — explosive from a standstill, and he changes direction at full speed without losing any of it. That is the tool that separates him from most 21-year-olds.
40 per cent of his attempts came from inside 20 feet, so he is already getting to the right places. The hands work at his own pace, which is the harder test, and the passing is good without yet being a weapon. He is a driver rather than a finisher.
The Physical Game
5-10 and 190, and he competes far harder than the frame suggests. He forechecks with force, goes into corners, and is difficult to knock off a puck for his size.
24 penalty minutes over 53 games. The strength will come and nothing about the game depends on it arriving.
The Intangibles
A first-round pick, a national-championship winner at Michigan, and a rookie season on the worst team in the conference in which he never looked out of place.
He is the player most likely to make Connor Bedard’s minutes survivable. The projection is a genuine second-line centre or a first-line winger, and the club needs him to be one of those quickly.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 651 minutes
- Expected goals
- 43.3%
- 9th pct
- Shot attempts
- 42.1%
- 3rd pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 20 for, 30 against. Expected: 22.6 and 29.6.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe report ranks him 74 points above where the numbers do. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason. Why the numbers land there sets out the club he did it on, the minutes he played and the men he played them with.
Both bars are percentiles among the 337 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 79 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Usual linemates
2024-25 · 651 minutes at five-on-five
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2024-25
- The club
- CHI took 43.2% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 43.3% — 0.1 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- 651 minutes at five-on-five — 24th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connor Bedard | 41.2% | 45.1% | 41.1% |
| Tyler Bertuzzi | 43.7% | 43.0% | 41.1% |
| Alex Vlasic | 43.8% | 43.1% | 41.6% |
41.2% together, 45.1% for him apart and 41.1% for Bedard apart. He was better away from Bedard, who was no worse away from him — the pairing cost him more than it cost Bedard.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
134 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 13 of them goals. His median goal came from 21 feet. 41% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 18% from beyond forty.