When you're born and raised in
Hockeytown, your first NHL game at Little Caesars Arena should be a
cherished memory. But by the time Frank Nazar checked that box in
January 2025 with a 5-3 Chicago Blackhawks loss to the Detroit Red
Wings, he was already a grizzled vet at that barn. “I played a
pre-season game, a few college games – actually scored my first college
goal at Little Caesars,” he said. “Every time I play there, it’s a
blast. I always have, like, 100 family members, so that makes it a lot
of fun. It’s great.”
Until he turned pro with the Blackhawks in
April of 2024, Nazar had always stuck to his home state. He played with
Detroit’s famed Honeybaked youth program, then developed in Plymouth
with USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program before shifting to
Ann Arbor for two seasons at NCAA Michigan.
But
it was a positional shift that may have had the biggest impact on
Nazar’s development. Young players often move from center to the wing as
they reach higher levels. Naturally speedy and somewhat undersized,
Nazar went the other way – pining to play in the middle before finally
getting his chance in his age-17 season. “I had asked my coaches my
whole life, ‘Put me at center,’ and they always told me ‘No, you’re
wing,” he said. “Finally, my first year at the NTDP, I started off as a
wing, and I was not doing well at all. Actually, I was pretty horrible,
I’m not going to lie. Then we had a bunch of guys get sick with COVID,
and we needed a center. I told the coach, ‘Hey, put me at center.’ I was
joking with him, and he’s like, ‘All right, we’ll see.’ He put me at
center, and I had an amazing game and never looked back from there.”
"I think it was really, really good for my development."
– Frank Nazar on his AHL time with coach Anders Sorensen
It’s
not how you start; it’s how you finish. By the end of 2020-21, Nazar
was the leading scorer on a U-17 squad that also included talents such
as Logan Cooley, Cutter Gauthier and Lane Hutson. He finished third on
the U-18 squad in 2021-22, and that June, the Blackhawks picked him 13th
overall.
Though Nazar missed the first four months of his
freshman NCAA season due to injury, his Wolverines reached the Frozen
Four in both of his college years. He, along with many of his NTDP
mates, won his first international gold medal at the 2024 world juniors.
Then, in April, he scored his first NHL goal in his pro debut against…