Michigan State hockey's 2024 NHL Draft recap

At the start of Friday, we knew Michigan State hockey star Artyom Levshunov was destined to hear his name called at the Sphere in Las Vegas during the 2024 NHL Draft.

We knew that he wasn’t going to have to wait long as well.

What MSU fans weren’t sure of, was if any other MSU players or prospects were going to also get selected this weekend. The final Spartan tally in the drafted ended up being four.

Now that the draft has concluded, let’s go over who got picked this weekend in Vegas.

Artyom Levshunov

As stated above, Arty did not have to wait very long to hear his name selected in Vegas. We expected that. Most NHL experts had him going no later than fourth in the draft. On the days leading up to the first round, many assumed he was going to go second to Chicago as they seemed to value picking a defenseman to help stabilize their back end instead of Russian star forward Ivan Demidov to pair with Connor Bedard.

That turned out to be the case. The Chicago Blackhawks did indeed select Arty with the second overall pick Friday. For more information on the pick and Arty, check out this piece I wrote about it. Arty became the highest drafted Spartan hockey player since 1986 when the Red Wings selected Joe Murphy No. 1 overall.

Congratulations to Arty on being selected. Hopefully we get the privilege to see him spend one more season in the Green and White before turning pro.