Weekly Notes: Levshunov Makes NHL Debut

Getty Images

General | 3/11/2025 1:18:31 PM

In the News What to Watch For
  • Artyom Levshunov (Green Bay Gamblers/Michigan State) made his NHL debut with the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday, March 10, becoming the 20th USHL alum to make their NHL debut this season. The second overall pick from the 2024 NHL Draft logged 20:55 over 24 shifts in his first game.
  • Madison, Waterloo and Youngstown enter the week with a magic number of three to clinch a playoff spot. Both wins by them and losses by the seventh-place teams in their respective conferences will secure a spot. See more clinching scenarios.
  • Dubuque became the first team in the Eastern Conference to clinch a spot in the Clark Cup playoffs with a win last Friday. The Fighting Saints have points in eight of their last ten games with a 6-2-1-1 record (W-L-OTL-SOW). Dubuque has ten games remaining.
  • Lincoln and Youngstown are 8-2-0-0 in their last ten games. View the daily report.
  • Ohio State commit Landen Gunderson (Sioux City Musketeers) leads the league with 60 points on 23 goals and 37 assists. Boston Bruins prospect and North Dakota commit Will Zellers (Green Bay Gamblers) leads the USHL with 38 goals, points per game (1.43) and ranks second in points (60) – closing the gap between himself and Gunderson despite having played 10 fewer games.
  • Zellers’s rights, former Green Bay Gambler Casey Mittelstadt and a second-round pick were traded from the Colorado Avalanche to the Boston Bruins in exchange for Charlie Coyle at the NHL trade deadline.
  • Wisconsin commit Bruno Idzan (Lincoln Stars) ranks second in the USHL in points per game (1.42). Idzan has scored in 19 of his 26 games since joining the Stars in mid-December. The Croatian forward has not gone more than two games without a point.
  • The NTDP is on a five-game winning streak and enters the week 10 points behind the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders with four fewer games played. The RoughRiders have 11 games remaining with four of those against teams outside of playoff position, including two vs. the NTDP U17 team.
  • Northeastern commit Tanner Morgan (Omaha Lancers) is on a four-game goal streak. He scored the Lancers’ overtime winner vs. Tri-City on Saturday.
  • Michigan commit Cole McKinney (NTDP U18s) has 10 points in his last seven games and has eight goals and seven assists in 11 games since the start of December.
  • Maine commit Lukas Peterson (Green Bay Gamblers) leads USHL defensemen in points with 41 points on seven goals and 34 assists. Vermont commit Caeden Herrington (Lincoln Stars) leads league defensemen with 14 goals.
  • St. Cloud State commit Yan Shostak (Lincoln Stars) leads USHL goalies with 2.36 goals against average. Miami commit Shikhabutdin Gadzhiev (Muskegon Lumberjacks) paces netminders with a .913 save percentage. Michigan State commit and Columbus Blue Jackets prospect Melvin Strahl leads the league with 27 wins. Lindenwood commit AJ Reyelts (Cedar Rapids RoughRiders) is the only goalie with four shutouts this season.  
  • Listed in order, Ryker Lee (Madison Capitols), Adam Benák (Youngstown Phantoms) and Quinnipiac commit Ethan Wyttenbach (Sioux Falls Stampede) are the only rookie scorers with 45 or more points.
  • Green Bay, Madison and Lincoln have the league’s best power plays, converting on roughly 30% of all chances. Sioux City and Sioux Falls have the league’s best penalty kills units at 84%.
  • Cedar Rapids RoughRiders head coach Mark Carlson has 771 career regular-season USHL wins. The record for all-time USHL regular season wins is held by O’Handley with 778. The RoughRiders have 11 games remaining. Carlson has coached more regular-season games than any coach in USHL history, breaking the record held by O’Handley earlier this season.
About the USHL

The United States Hockey League and its 16 member clubs are committed to being the leading 16–20-year-old junior hockey league in the world. More than half of Division I men’s hockey roster spots are held by USHL alumni and more than 195 alumni were listed on NHL rosters at the start of the 2024-25 season.

The league's player-first approach, including a 2:1 practice-to-game ratio and a schedule with 92% of games played on weekends, provides its players with the optimal environment for athletic and personal growth, creating pathways for the next generation of stars like Kyle Connor (Youngstown Phantoms), Macklin Celebrini (Chicago Steel), Cole Caufield (NTDP), Adam Fantilli (Chicago Steel) and Jeremy Swayman (Sioux Falls Stampede). More.