As a Michigan fan and suburban Detroit native, Frank Nazar has spent his life hearing all about Tom Brady.
When the young Blackhawks forward thinks about what he’s trying to master in the NHL — the game-management side of things, making the correct decisions at the correct times — he can’t help but notice parallels to Brady.
“He knows how to play the clock; he knows how to play the game,” Nazar said Friday. “It’s almost [about] bringing that to hockey and doing that on the ice, knowing when the time is right to get the puck in and stuff like that.”
Nazar, 20, knows he has all the natural talent needed to succeed. And after dominating the AHL the first two months of the season, he has all the necessary confidence, too.
His challenge is to learn what works and what doesn’t against elite defenders — and to learn how to navigate the NHL’s always evolving, high-intensity game situations.
“Everyone has a pretty high IQ when you get to the NHL, obviously,” he said. “If a play gets broken up, it’s [about] coming back at it and doing it again until it works. That’s part of [why] getting these games in is really helpful. [I’m getting] up to speed and understanding how guys play and the routine of things.”
Those game-management skills might require a few trips back and forth to conquer. This is already his second NHL stint (after the end of last season), and considering he has been fine but unremarkable in five appearances, Hawks management might decide he needs more seasoning before becoming a fixture.
That’s OK, though. Even before he was called up, one scout said he believed a small dose of NHL experience followed by a return to Rockford would be best for Nazar’s long-term development.
In his five games, he has no points and two shots on goal, averaging just under 14 minutes of ice time.
Slotted as the second-line center by Hawks interim coach Anders Sorensen, he mostly has played with Taylor Hall and Tyler Bertuzzi, although that started to change in the latter half of the Hawks’ 6-4 loss Saturday in Calgary.
During five-on-five play, Nazar has a respectable 46.2% scoring-chance ratio (18 for and 21 against), ranking ninth among Hawks forwards during this span. His 33.7% shot ratio is considerably worse, though. Saturday was his roughest outing: The Flames generated a 7-1 scoring-chance advantage against him.
Smaller forwards (such as the 5-9 Nazar) who put up huge numbers in the AHL sometimes struggle to translate that production to the NHL because they spend too much time on the perimeter of the offensive zone. In the NHL more than anywhere else, getting to the high-danger areas around the net is a crucial ingredient for scoring.
In Nazar’s case, the fact that much of his AHL production originated around the net encouraged scouts and management that it would translate up a level. Despite his size, he doesn’t shy away from contact; he actually thrives in tight areas.
Sorensen, whose coaching fueled much of Nazar’s success in Rockford, is nonetheless monitoring his ratio of perimeter-to-interior play closely. He’s also urging him to shoot when he gets opportunities rather than forcing passes, as he did to Hall on one blatant occasion Thursday against the Kraken.
“When you play with certain guys that have been in the league for a long time, you respect them and maybe look to pass to them when you could hang on to it yourself and trust your own instincts,” Sorensen said Friday.
“We want him attacking. He can score goals. It’s a different league, obviously — [there are] bigger D-men and smarter players — but I think he has done a pretty good job of that overall.”