Frank Nazar has arrived for the Chicago Blackhawks and will be in the second line center role for the foreseeable future. He broke into the NHL last season after dominating the AHL and isn't going to look back. The Blackhawks' future down the middle looks good with Connor Bedard, Nazar, and Anton Frondell, but either Bedard or Frondell are going to be the one moving over to the wing in the top-6.
Only six players drafted in the first round of the 2022 NHL Entry Draft haven't played a game in the NHL and a scattered number of players past the first round have. Amongst the top performers from the draft already is Nazar, despite being the Blackhawks' second first-round pick that year behind Kevin Korchinski.
Nazar is the eighth-highest point producer from the 2022 draft, even though the point totals aren't all that high yet. He has 27 points in the NHL, and that's pretty good for one partial season, whereas others have two to three full seasons under their belts already.
Ahead of Nazar is Juraj Slafkovsky (111), Logan Cooley (109), Lane Hutson (68), Shane Wright (51), Pavel Mintyukov (47), Cutter Gauthier (45), and Marco Kasper (37) with Matthew Poitras (26) and Jiri Kulich (24) right behind Nazar.
Some of these players have a head start on Nazar and will likely have better linemates to play with next season, but things could change pretty quickly for the Blackhawks who will continue to look to add big names in the coming years. It's almost impossible to say who will have the longest career or who will even have the most success from a close 2022 draft, but that's the fun of watching.
Nazar is just kicking off his career and can hang with almost anyone from the draft. 2025-26 will be a telling season with a number of these players already having roles in the NHL.
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