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Where would Roman Kantserov’s skills fit on the Blackhawks’ power play?

Chicago’s power play finished 29th in he league last season. Here’s how Kantserov could help that.

Posted on by Scott Kennedy
Source: Magnitogorsk Metallurg Facebook

(Editor’s note: Scott has been a mutual follow on social media for years, as well as a consistent reader and supporter of this site. It was an honor for him to contact us about sharing this piece at our site and we think you’ll appreciate his excellent hockey insights). Give him a follow on Bluesky!

Roman Kantserov’s arrival has Blackhawks fans excited and they should be, as he led the KHL in goals this season at just 21 years old. His stats and accomplishments are drawing comparisons to other past young Russian stars including Artemi Panarin, Evgeni Malkin and Kirill Kaprizov. Some scorers have a favorite spot on the ice but he’s shown that he can score from in close or from range, from in the slot or on the wing, and off the rush or off the cycle. He’s a really versatile scorer.

He’s also a dangerous addition to a power play that could use the help. Just a season ago, the Hawks second power-play unit included three fourth-line players: Pat Maroon, Craig Smith and Lukas Reichel. Since that time they’ve added Frank Nazar, Nick Lardis and Anton Frondell, so the depth and threats are improving, and Kantserov’s scoring ability should help with that.

It’s not just that he’s a dangerous scorer, it’s also that he’s been scoring from one particular spot on the ice that would be really helpful on the Hawks’ power play, fills a current need, and allows the rest of the Hawks’ top power-play options to fit into place. Not only could you put them in the spots that best fit their skillset, but the five-man unit can be ideally aligned for who is right and left-handed. The additions of Frondell and Kantserov will allow the Hawks to set up so that Bedard can have three dangerous passing options or, if the penalty kill takes those away, he’d have an open shooting lane from the left circle, all perfectly aligned.

It’s really exciting to think about.

The Blackhawks’ power-play lineups this season

Let’s start with a quick review of the things the Blackhawks have generally tried on the power play this season.

At the beginning of the season, they lined up something like this:

With Bedard set up on the left, this power play is designed to feed him as the shooter.

Here Bedard is on the left side, his best position for one-timers, and with the right-handed defenseman of either Levshunov or Rinzel, they are ideally handed to send him one-time passes. Additionally, Teravainen is their best passer, and he’s on the opposite flank looking for seam passes to feed Bedard as well.

All of this is set up to feed a shot from Bedard. This is very similar to how Washington looks to feed Ovi or how Buffalo looks to feed Tage Thompson from that same spot. It works well if your go-to option is a right-handed shooter in the left circle.

The problem was that, when defenses took that Bedard shot away, there weren’t as many good alternatives. He can’t really feed Nazar in the bumper, because Nazar can’t really shoot from that angle as a right-handed shot. All he can do is relieve a little defensive pressure and pass it back outside to an open teammate. He can try going across to Teravainen, but Teuvo’s a better passer than a shooting option. Bedard can reset back to the point but, because his defenseman is right-handed, it’s not really an option for a one-timer, just a pass to set up something else. He can try to get the puck to the net and hope Bertuzzi can do some magic either on the screen or back door, but that’s still just no another Bedard shooting option — it’s more of the same.

A little bit into the season, they switched it up and moved Bedard to his right side, and brought Burakovsky in as well to work the left flank. They also brought Burakovsky in to help with zone entries, as he’s a skillful puck carrier, and he took Teuvo’s place on the power play on the flank opposite Bedard.

With Bedard set up on the right, this power play is designed allow he and Burakovsky to “run downhill,” moving toward the net while opening shooting and passing options.

Bedard on the right side made him less of an option on a one-timer, but with his shot he’s still a danger to shoot from anywhere, including the right side. This is the power-play setup that they referred to as “going downhill”: they’d have Bedard and Burakovsky loop back up high to the blue line and attack going forward, Bedard with the puck and Burakovsky shadowing him across the ice. As Bedard moved forward in the zone he’d look for seams opening in the defense that would either a) let him pass across for Burakovsky, getting the goalie moving side to side, b) a shorter lateral pass to Nazar in the bumper for a one timer, which is better set up for his right-handed shot on a pass coming from the right side, c) looking for Bertuzzi at the open back post, or d) shooting it.

Even though this setup takes away the one-timer option from Bedard, they seemed to have more success with this approach. It gave him three dangerous passing options, while still having a shooting option.

As the season wore on, the power play struggled once again. A lot of that can be attributable to zone entries and dump in retrievals — or the lack of them. They’ve struggled to get in the zone and set up. When they have, the results have often been promising, but things had grown stale.

With Bedard at the point, this power play is designed to look for seams as a passer, or find open shooting lanes from distance.

Apparently, an idea pitched by Bedard was moving him back to the point, where his vision could be a primary passing asset, while still getting pucks through on his shot. In listening to Bedard and Blashill describe their plans, it sounded like Bedard wanted to look for passing options first, and he felt he had more options while positioned up top. Second, Bedard also felt that there would be greater opportunities to get shots through to the net from up top, rather than on the side. So, even if those shots were from greater distance, they’d be just as effective as long as they were on net towards a screened goalie.

They have added Frondell and his dangerous shot to the right side, and Bedard has been feeding him as the primary shooter. As a righty himself, it’s a little awkward for Bedard to feed him without telegraphing the pass. Not a dealbreaker by any means, still very doable, it would just be an easier pass if Bedard was a lefty.

It’s too early to tell if this could work, but it has shown a lot of promise in limited opportunities. One real danger is in giving up shorthanded chances against, something the young Hawks were often doing already. With five forwards on the ice and Bedard the last man back, that may be dangerous at times.

The Hawks had some late season success with this look and they may open with it next season.

I’m skeptical that this is their long-term plan, but there’s no harm in experimenting in the garbage time of a lost season, and Blashill seemed willing to accommodate Bedard asking for it. Apparently he had some success playing from the point while back in junior. This option works well with Bedard’s passing vision, but it puts him farther from the net as a shooting option.

So the question becomes, if Bedard’s best shooting option is on the left, but his best passing options are when he’s positioned up top or on the right, do the Hawks have any talent in the pipeline that would allow him to set up on the left, where his shot is most dangerous, and still have three dangerous passing options?

The answer to that is yes.

If you move Bedard back to the left, the first thing you have to do is to put a dangerous option on the right. The Hawks now have two great options on the right: Anton Frondell and Nick Lardis. Both are specialists on the power play, from one-timers, at the right circle.

Here’s the big one-timer that Frondell scored at world juniors earlier this winter:

Sweden’s power play was set up to feed his shot from the right circle, something you’d often see on Djurgarden’s second power-play unit as well.

And here’s an example of Lardis banging one home from his office on the Hawks’ power play earlier this season.

He scored a ton of goals just like this in Rockford this season and in junior last season. These guys can absolutely feast from there. Frondell’s shot is considered a little heavier than Lardis’, but Lardis has filled the net at every level he’s played, either should be a dangerous threat in that spot.

We know that Bertuzzi is a back post tap-in threat, that dangerous option remains.

The other need to fill is in the bumper position. That position has typically been filled by Frank Nazar, or sometimes Teravainen, though neither has been much of a shooting threat from there. Nazar’s real value is on zone entries, where his speed and stickhandling are an asset for getting into the zone and getting set up, something that the young Hawks have really struggled with. If they take Nazar off the top power-play unit, they’ll need to find a way to consistently enter the zone without him — it will be a make-or-break need.

But if they can find a way to consistently enter the zone without Nazar, there’s a strong case to be made that you’d wanta left-handed Kantserov in the bumper when you’ve got Bedard on the left, rather than the right-handed Nazar.

Before I cherry pick a few of the Kantserov goals from this season that demonstrate why, let’s just pause for a second to appreciate the season he had in the KHL this year. He scored from EVERYWHERE. Sometimes he was banging home one timers from the right circle, just like Frondell and Lardis, as he did here.

He was great around the goal mouth, he could score from in close regardless of whether the play was coming from the left, as he did here …

… or the right, as he did here.

He could steal the puck in the defensive zone and go the other way with it, as he did here …

… or he could just take it on the breakout and skate through all of the opposition, as he did here.

If you took away all his passing options, he’d just skate around the world until he found a seam and fire a wrist shot through, as he did here.

He can literally score from anywhere and, despite his 5-foot-9 size, he can run guys over too, as he did here:

And also here:

Telling you, meatballs are gonna love him if he does this in Chicago

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— Koman Rantserov (@precomped.bsky.social) April 27, 2026 at 3:23 PM

In addition to those great goals, he also showed he could score on one-timers from the bumper position on plays where the pass was coming from the left side. Here are three examples, the first is the easier and less complicated of the three.

Kantserov is positioned in the slot, and takes a diagonal pass from the left corner that he one-times on net for a goal.

As you can see in the video below, his teammate gets the puck on the left wall just above the red line and is able to feed him centrally, and he’s able to turn on the one-timer and score. The angle on this pass makes the shot a little easier to get off, a lot of left-handed shooters can do so, but he still executed the move and scored on it.

Another game, another Kantserov PP goal. It’s like his office is more the short perimeter of the net than it is near the dots.

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— Koman Rantserov (@precomped.bsky.social) March 26, 2026 at 3:44 PM

That was great, but these next two are the ones that get me even more excited.

Kantserov is positioned in the slot, and takes a lateral/horizontal pass from the left half wall that he one-times on net for a goal.

The first example of this is a goal from November:

The second is a playoff goal from April that was a series-clincher scored on the power play during overtime:

Here’s the goal; the replays are a much better view of his shot than full speed.

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— Koman Rantserov (@precomped.bsky.social) April 17, 2026 at 1:14 PM

As you can see from the two nearly identical examples above, the pass is much more horizontal than the earlier example, where it’s much harder for a shooter to turn on the pass at that angle and get it on net with accuracy and pace — but Kantserov scores here, too. What’s more appealing about these examples is that you’ll notice where the pass comes from is closer to where you’d expect to find Bedard with the puck on the power play, and Kantserov is sitting where you’d expect the guy in the bumper on the power play to be. If Kantserov can consistently get shots off from there, on a pass from that location, that opens up a lot of possibilities for Bedard on the power play from the left.

With the addition of Kantserov next season, here’s what a setup might look like if you move Bedard back to the left side, his side that’s more dangerous for one-timers, and put Kantserov in the bumper.

With Bedard set up on the left, this power play is designed to give him three dangerous passing options (Frondell, Kantserov, Bertuzzi), or shoot.

With any pass to Bedard from a) the defenseman, b) Frondell, or even c) Kantserov, Bedard will be well positioned to execute a one-timer, and in each of those situations the passer is the correct hand for that location to be able to feed him.

If Bedard chooses not to shoot, he has a lot of dangerous passing options, unlike earlier in the season when he was on this side of the power play and the passing options were fewer. He can a) pass laterally, fully across the ice to feed Frondell in the right circle for a one timer, b) pass laterally, partially across the ice to Kantserov in the slot where he’s well positioned to get off a one timer, or c) pass or shoot it to the back post where Bertuzzi will be waiting to bank it in.

If the penalty killers take those three passing options away, he probably has an open shooting lane. If not, he can either pass back to the point to reset, or he should have options that would allow him to drive, either to the net or down the wall to open up seams. Each possible option would be ideally structured, all to feed and run through Bedard.

When they had Bedard on the left side at the start of the season, his only real options were to shoot or to feed Bertuzzi. The personnel available at the time just led to too few options working from the left side. But by the start of next season they should have the necessary additions to fully optimize their setup and give them consistently dangerous options, all running out of the hands of their most capable player.

I think the possibilities are really exciting and I hope they give it a try.

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