The future of the Chicago Blackhawks is starting to take shape with Frank Nazar and Colton Dach joining Connor Bedard in the NHL. With the plan being to sign Oliver Moore, Ryan Greene and Sam Rinzel after the college season ends, a prospect people might be overlooking is Nick Lardis.
Lardis was a third-round pick of the Blackhawks in 2023. He started his OHL career with the Peterborough Petes at age 16, and his game has steadily improved since. He scored 18 goals in his first year and 12 goals in his second year. After being acquired by Hamilton, he scored 25 goals in his first year. In his second year with the Bulldogs and draft year, Lardis scored 29 goals, his highest goal output.
This year at age 19, Lardis is putting together a special OHL season. Lardis currently has 42 goals in 45 games. He is on pace for a shade under a goal a game for the season. With 17 games remaining, Lardis will finish with close to 60 goals. The last Blackhawks prospect to top 60 OHL goals was Alex DeBrincat in 2016–17. While the OHL is an offense-heavy league, the last player to score 60 goals in a OHL season was undrafted Justin Brazeau in 2018–19.
OHL 60-goal scorers
Historically, 40 OHL players have scored 60 or more goals in a season. The most goals in a single OHL season belongs to Ernie Gooden with 87. Ernie played five NHL games and 142 AHL games. He had one NHL goal and 68 AHL goals in the 1980s.
While Ernie’s NHL career was not long, the second-highest season in the OHL belongs to Ray Sheppard. Sheppard went on to play 13 seasons in the NHL with Buffalo, Detroit, Florida, Carolina, the New York Rangers and San Jose. He scored 357 NHL goals, which included a 52-goal season with the Red Wings in 1993–94. He was drafted in the third round of the 1984 NHL draft by Buffalo. Other notable OHL 60-goal scorers are Eric Lindros and John Tavares.
The most recent players to have scored 60 goals in the OHL are Reid Boucher, DeBrincat and Brazeau. Boucher scored 20 NHL goals in 133 game before taking his game overseas. DeBrincat has 235 goals thus far in NHL career with Chicago, Ottawa, and Detroit. Brazeau has 15 goals in two NHL season after working his way up through the ECHL and AHL en route to the NHL.
Analysis
While Lardis is not being relied upon as a future cornerstone like Bedard, Lardis could still be vital to the Blackhawks’ future success. In the Hawks’ propsect pool, Lardis appears to have the best goal-scoring ability of the group.
In October of 2024, Scott Powers had this to say about Lardis:
While scoring 60 goals in the OHL does not guarantee you success in the NHL, it does give the player more opportunities to make the NHL. Lardis will be a professional hockey player next season, presumably with the Rockford IceHogs. With the graduation of Nazar to the Blackhawks, Lardis, Moore and Greene will be asked to score in the AHL. The biggest question will be, can Lardis’ scoring ability translate to the AHL and ultimately the NHL?
Regardless of how his career with the Blackhawks ends up, nobody can take away this special OHL season from Lardis.