How Artyom Levshunov -- a potential Blackhawks draft target at No. 2 -- has navigated hype and family hardships

Dan Milstein remembers the humble beginnings of Artyom Levshunov’s American journey.

Levshunov had lost his father to COVID-19, and his family had been going through hard times financially before Milstein’s agency, Gold Star Sports Management, brought the teenager from Belarus with little grasp of English to the United States to start his long path to the NHL.

“So two years ago, a kid in shorts, flip-flops and a T-shirt, but nothing else in his name or in his luggage, showed up at my doorstep,” Milstein told the Chicago Tribune. “He was very soft-spoken — you couldn’t even hear him say (much) — and a year later this kid is going to college.”

The Michigan State defenseman has made a persuasive case on the ice to be the No. 2 pick, owned by the Chicago Blackhawks, in the NHL draft in Las Vegas.

Those who know him say the fact he hasn’t allowed personal tragedy to derail his NHL dream has been just as compelling.

“Arty has real perspectives,” Michigan State coach Adam Nightingale said. “Sometimes we talk about adversity in sports and it’s really not adversity. Like, we talk about the real things that happen in life, and Arty’s lived some of those.

“I can’t imagine losing my father and things were tight for his family and all those different things. I’ve talked to him about it, but he’s always got a positive spin on it.”

Said Nash Nienhuis, Levshunov’s defensive partner on the Spartans: “I think it just shaped his character. And for a kid to have gone through all that, and then just to see how he shows up every day, just willing to work and have fun and make light of most situations, he’s great.”

The Hawks have been taking a long look at Levshunov, as well as another of Milstein’s clients: KHL junior-league winger Ivan Demidov.

The Hawks courted both prospects this week during Milstein’s showcase in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., a last chance to get to know them before the Hawks get to select one of them — or someone else — when they hand in their draft card Friday early in the first round of the two-day event at Sphere Las Vegas.

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