Anders Sorensen didn’t say a whole lot during his interviews as the Blackhawks’ interim coach, but his reticence made his few bold statements noteworthy.
Calling Frank Nazar ‘‘the best player on the ice [on] both teams’’ after the Hawks’ victory in their penultimate game of the season in Montreal sits atop that list. Sorensen knew exactly what he was doing, making that comment after Ivan Demidov’s debut with the Canadiens, and there was a glimmer in his eyes as he did so.
After all, Nazar’s development this season was Sorensen’s most impressive coaching accomplishment — by a considerable margin.
After the 20-year-old forward slogged through a forgettable first NHL training camp under ex-coach Luke Richardson, he promptly tore up the AHL for two months under Sorensen.
He was promoted to the Hawks in mid-December — just a week after Sorensen was promoted, too — and steadily improved through the rest of the season, to the point he was arguably the Hawks’ top performer during the final few weeks.
‘‘I watched Frank Nazar mature a lot before my eyes,’’ captain Nick Foligno said during exit interviews. ‘‘I’m really proud of that kid. He really came to play this year and took it to heart. Obviously, there are ebbs and flows, but I thought his game really took off.’’
Nazar ranked 12th among NHL rookies this season with 26 points (in 53 games), but he wasn’t too far off the top pace during the second half of the season.
From Jan. 18 on, he ranked seventh among rookies with 23 points, eight behind class leaders Macklin Celebrini and Matvei Michkov during that span. And in April — granted, a small sample — his nine points in eight games ranked second among rookies to Celebrini’s 10.
Nazar easily could have racked up more points, too. His low conversion rate on breakaways became a source of frustration but also a running joke. Even when he started finishing some chances late in the season, he was generating even more.
From March 13 on, Nazar’s 53 individual scoring chances were tied for 25th in the NHL — 13 more than any other Hawks player and one behind Celebrini for tops among rookies.
‘‘[Playing in the NHL] started off a little different and a little harder, [but] as the year went along it became a lot of fun,’’ Nazar said. ‘‘It helped having a lot of younger guys and guys my age and guys that I knew to play with. It just turned a lot of sadness of losing into some joy and excitement.’’
Nazar’s good-but-not-great numbers in his two years at the University of Michigan temporarily dampened expectations about the kind of NHL player he might become, but those expectations have risen significantly.
It has become clear Nazar’s hip surgery in fall 2022 affected his unremarkable college production more than realized, and it also has become clear he simply needs time to acclimate to new teams before he takes off (with Rockford being the one exception).
‘‘It’s just [about gaining] confidence and being comfortable and understanding the league,’’ he said. ‘‘I’ve shown it at different levels of hockey: Once I get to a spot and start to study and learn and understand how the game is played at that level, I start to do a lot better.’’
Nazar’s aforementioned performance in Montreal demonstrated the kind of all-around weapon he could be for the Hawks as soon as next season. It might have been the most impressive individual performance by a Hawks player in any game all season.
His combination of speed, work ethic and hockey IQ makes him effective in every situation. That night, he ripped a power-play goal and generated several short-handed opportunities. He won countless puck battles during five-on-five play, showed incredible athleticism to leap clean over teammate Tyler Bertuzzi at one point, then tucked in the only goal of the shootout.
After Nazar scored the overtime winner in the Hawks’ final game the next night in Ottawa, Connor Bedard — another typically reticent guy — spoke passionately about Nazar’s ‘‘unbelievable’’ improvement down the stretch.
‘‘The way he uses his speed and thinks the game so well, guys get pushed back when he’s out there,’’ Bedard said. ‘‘His growth has been remarkable in the last . . . 20 games. It’s exciting for us.’’
Nazar’s penalty-killing efforts are worth highlighting, too. In his 51 minutes of short-handed ice time this season, the Hawks only were outscored 5-2 and had a scoring-chance ratio of 22.2%. That minus-three goal differential was tied for fourth-best out of 183 forwards leaguewide, and that scoring-chance ratio was the fifth-highest.
He and Landon Slaggert terrorized opposing power plays with odd-man rushes in Rockford, and Nazar and Ilya Mikheyev ended the season doing the same for the Hawks. Nazar has only two shorthanded points so far in the NHL, but it’s easy to imagine him racking up three times that per season.
Beyond his effect on special teams, he also put the Hawks in favorable special-teams situations. After committing four minor penalties in his first five NHL games, he committed only three more the rest of the season. Meanwhile, he drew 18 minor-penalty calls against opponents, second only to Bertuzzi. Nazar’s plus-10 penalty differential was by far the best on the team.
Although it stands to reason Nazar will become a more efficient finisher with time, his mediocrity in that regard might prevent him from becoming a first-line star. But he seems guaranteed to be a versatile top-six staple for years to come, as well as a fan favorite and heart-and-soul personality in the locker room.
It will be interesting to see whether the Hawks slot Bedard and Nazar together or apart in their future depth chart. They’re both natural centers, so the split-apart option might be most likely. Nazar spent only 37% of his five-on-five ice time this season with Bedard, and he enjoyed his late-season surge on a line with Bertuzzi and Teuvo Teravainen — the latter of whom he developed especially strong chemistry with.
‘‘It was fun to play with him,’’ Teravainen said. ‘‘He’s got some really good speed, so I tried to find him with the speed. He was trying to get himself open, too. When I got the puck, I feel like he was reading what I do pretty [well].’’
Like Bedard, Nazar will technically become eligible for a contract extension July 1, but it’s more likely that extension won’t come until 2026.
In the meantime, Nazar will play for the U.S. team — along with defenseman Alex Vlasic — in the world championships in Denmark and Sweden this month.
That seems like a smart idea to keep his momentum rolling as deep as possible into the offseason.
