Lucas Carlsson: The Good, The Bad, And The Promising
Lucas Carlsson, is an intriguing player for the Chicago Blackhawks. Carlsson, has the mold of a modern NHL defenseman. He is a small, mobile, puck-moving defenseman. His best attribute is his ability to distribute the puck on the breakout and in the neutral zone. He still has some work to do, but I believe he has the skillset and potential to be an excellent #4 for the Chicago Blackhawks.
Carlsson, is a Swedish native and was drafted by the Blackhawks in the fourth round, 110th overall, at the 2016 NHL Draft. He was drafted in his draft plus one year.
The year that Carlsson was drafted, he was voted to have the best goal in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). The next two years he spent most of us time in the SHL, and also represented Sweden at the 2017 World Juniors. In 85 SHL games, he recorded 10 goals and 18 assists for 28 points.
He didn’t necessarily light it up in Sweden, but he’s not a true offensive defenseman. Last year, he came over to North America and played with the Rockford IceHogs of the AHL. He did very well in his first year, and recorded nine goals and 24 assists for 33 points in 69 games. This year, he appeared in 48 games and scored five goals and 21 assists for 26 points.
Call-Up To The Chicago Blackhawks
Carlsson, received his first NHL call-up on February 22nd 2020, with the trade talks surrounding Erik Gustafsson. In six games with the Blackhawks, before the break, he recorded an assist. He also recorded a 46.85 CF%, 49.09 FF% and a 48.43 xGF% at even strength. Those rank 23rd, 8th and 7th respectively (out of 26 eligible skaters). Using the eye test he hasn’t looked out of place either.
So where does that lead us? I will be breaking down some game footage of Carlsson (and the Blackhawks). I will be breaking down film from three separate games. Those games include, his NHL debut against the Dallas Stars, March 3rd against the Anaheim Ducks and March 11th against the San Jose Sharks. I’ll be looking at both his highlights and lowlights, and I’ll make a conclusion at the end.
Carlsson’s Highlights
In this first clip, Carlsson does a couple good things here. He’s able to stop a potential dangerous situation, by getting Blake Comeau against the boards and getting the puck back. Something else I’ve noticed with, Carlsson, is that he loves to dump the puck in. Carlsson, also does a very good job recovering after a bad pass from Matthew Highmore.
On his very next shift, Carlsson, makes another good play. He’s able to block both the pass and the shot and forces a turnover. He’s able to then get it up to a forward, who attempts to get out of their own zone.
Again on his next shift Carlsson was able to make an impact. Firstly, he made a good play to keep the puck in the offensive zone. This allowed for the ‘Hawks to get a quality shot on net. Next, under pressure he’s able to make a tape-to-tape pass to Connor Murphy. While, it doesn’t sound like something super impressive, the Blackhawks have struggled with this all year. That pass led to a high danger chance and to a drawn penalty.
As I just mentioned, the Hawks have really struggled with tape-to-tape passes, especially from their defensemen. You can see here that Carlsson makes a couple of perfect passes to both Brandon Saad and Ryan Carpenter. The one to Carpenter especially, it led to a dangerous chance in front of the net. At the end of his shift, Carlsson, stands his ground against Alexander Radulov, and buys time for Adam Boqvist to get the puck out of the zone.
Carlsson, makes a very good play on Jamie Benn. He sticks with his man (Corey Perry), but also stays in position to cover Benn. Carlsson, because of both his good stick-positioning and just positioning in general was able to deflect a potential shot on goal.
You can really see some of Carlsson’s, offensive prowess come into play here. He jumps into the offensive zone, shields the puck and makes a behind the back pass to Dominik Kubalik for a high danger chance. Kubalik, just mishandled the puck otherwise I think that would’ve been a goal.
Carlsson, again shows that he’s not afraid to jump into the offensive zone. He carries the puck in and then makes a pass to Kirby Dach. The pass just misses Dach, but it resulted in a good chance. Later in the same shift, Carlsson takes away the puck along the boards and gets it out to DeBrincat.
Here’s where Carlsson, gets his first NHL assist and point. He makes an excellent cross ice pass to Patrick Kane, who then makes a perfect pass to Dylan Strome, and Strome put it into the back of the net.
To start off this shift, Carlsson, shoots for a tip-in which almost works. The puck gets deflected, but the Ducks recover the puck. They try to start their breakout, but Carlsson is able to deflect/block the pass, Highmore picks it up and passes it to David Kampf for a goal.
In this shift Carlsson, had very good positioning. He made himself available and had a nice shot on net. He also makes a nice play to keep the puck in the offensive zone and to maintain possession of the puck. And to end the shift he makes a nice bank pass to Kubalik.
Once again he shows his offensive prowess. Carlsson picks up the rebound, carries it behinds the net and delivers a spot on pass to Connor Murphy. Carlsson’s play led to a high danger chance.
Again in this shift we can see that Carlsson can move the puck very well. Every single pass he makes this shift are tape-to-tape passes. He also got a point blank shot in on Aaron Dell.
In this shift, Carlsson, shows off some of his defensive ability. He does a good job of shielding both Melker Karlsson and Joel Kellman, so that Crawford is able to freeze the puck and no rebound is allowed. He then ties up Noah Gregor and doesn’t allow the shot, and is able to get the puck out to Brandon Hagel. Finally, he uses his stick to prevent the break in and the period ends.
I also just wanted to give an example of how inconsistent the Hawks passing/distribution skills are. Even though the team did score at the end of this video, they struggled to get the puck out of their own zone. They didn’t pass it to Carlsson once either. That just shows how important he is to the Hawks in transition.
The Lowlights
I just want to make something clear off the bat here, I want every player to ultimately succeed and thrive. But in order to get the whole picture you have to look at the good and the bad and make conclusions from there.
This is a smaller critique, but something I’ve noticed a lot is that Carlsson isn’t strong on his skates and in general. You can see in this clip, he gets pushed out of the way and Crawford has to take the shot himself.
As I just mentioned, Carlsson, struggles right out in front of his own net. He allows a very dangerous chance to Tyler Seguin, and gets lucky that it doesn’t go in.
I feel like I’m a broken record saying this, but once again Carlsson got out muscled by another player. Carlsson, also struggled to keep up with Denis Gurianov. I will say he did do a pretty good job recovering though.
To start off this shift he was playing very well. At the end though he mishandled the puck and it led to a 2-on-1. Usually, Carlsson, is very good at handling the puck, so I don’t think this’ll be an issue going forwards.
There’s not much to say here except that he got tied up in front of the net and didn’t even notice that Danton Heinen snuck behind him. I don’t know if you can really blame him, but I think he could’ve positioned himself a little better.
Even though a goal was scored on this shift, there was something I noticed. At the end of his shift, Carlsson, seemed to get a little flustered and ended up making two bad passes. One he threw to Murphy’s skates and the other he banked it off the boards to no one. Again, I think this is one of those once in awhile things, since he’s so good with the puck.
This was more of just getting unlucky and put in a bad situation. Carlsson, by trying to get Carter Rowney out in front of the net, screened Crawford in a way. At worst, it’s something to learn from.
Again, Carlsson, was put into a tough situation, but I do think he could’ve handled it better. I think he played the 3-on-1 situation pretty well, but the execution could be better. He should’ve gone down maybe a second or two later, but he did force the pass to miss its target.
So this is where we get to my biggest concern with Carlsson. His skating and acceleration really concern me. He gets beat over the top here, and that can’t happen. This is the area where he needs to put in the most work.
Again another small thing I wouldn’t worry about too much, but that pass needs to be closer to Patrick Kane than it was. He makes good passes consistently, so I would not worry about this too much.
Final Thoughts
Looking at the good and the bad, I do think he has #4 potential. I don’t think he has the offensive talent to play on the power play, and I don’t think he has the size/defensive ability to play on the penalty kill. He’s a safe player and will play a lot of even strength minutes.
If he can get stronger and improve his skating, I think he’ll dominate in those even strength minutes. He’s so good with the puck and is very good in transition. It’s something the Hawks have been lacking for awhile. The Blackhawks got a steal with, Carlsson, and look for him to be on the team for years to come.
Stats Via: Natural Stat Trick
Video Via: NHL.com
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