Livescore
Brantford Bulldogs superstar winger Nick Lardis, also a Chicago Blackhawks prospect, joined elite company last week when he notched his 50th goal of the season in his 49th game of the year.
The Oakville, Ontario native joined some pretty elite company, becoming just the eighth OHL player to score 50 goals in less than 50 games, and the first to do it since Nick Robertson did with the Peterborough Petes in 2019-20.
Additionally, Lardis scored his 52nd goal of the year in his most recent game, on Feb. 8. This surpassed the record set by Bulldogs alumnus Arthur Kaliyev — 51 goals in 2018-19 — for the most goals in a single season by a Bulldogs player.
We had the opportunity to chat with Lardis and ask him about the incredible season he’s had, and below we are going to break down what makes Lardis so special as an elite goal-scorer.
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Lardis was drafted 67th overall in the third round of the 2023 NHL Entry Draft by the Chicago Blackhawks. He signed his entry-level contract with them on Apr. 4, 2024.
He grew up in Toronto watching the Maple Leafs a lot, but funny enough, he also enjoyed watching the Blackhawks during the Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane era.
“My favorite player growing up was Patrick Kane. Seeing how dynamic he was there,” said Lardis.
“He was a guy that I really admired and tried to learn from as a kid. The way he stickhandles and thinks the game at another level compared to everyone. But growing up more in junior hockey, guys in the NHL like Kyle Connor, Clayton Keller, or Tim Stutzle, those kind of guys I think I play a similar game to are players I like to watch a lot now.”
It makes sense for him to compare himself to Connor, Keller, and Stutzle. Like those three, he’s an average-sized forward, but his skating and elite-level shot are traits that separate him from the rest.
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Lardis scored 37 goals in 69 games in his draft year, split between the Bulldogs and Peterborough. Last season, unfortunately, met with injuries, he scored 29 goals in 37 games.
He’s always had a knack for putting the puck in the back of the net and being the sniper for his team. But, this season has been a breakout campaign for Nick, and all the work he put in to improve his shot growing up has started to pay off.
“Growing up I was fortunate enough to have a shooting garage. Every summer before practice, or coming home from practice, or before school, I’d always be in the garage shooting pucks and stickhandling. And during covid I was in there pretty much every day shooting pucks.”
What do you get when you constantly work on your shot? You get these kinds of results. Here’s Lardis’ recent four-goal outing against Sudbury from Feb. 2.
He mentioned that over the past couple of years, he’s put a big emphasis on working on his quick release with a few of his shooting coaches in the summer.
When you watch those goals and see his technique, you can say that the work he’s been putting in has been paying off. Three quick snap shots where he hides the release point and then a patented Lardis one-timer to cap it off. That’s a high-level shooter right there.
He credited his shooting coaches, Josh Wrobel and Mike Crampton, who have been working with him for a very long time.
Here’s a breakdown of how he has scored his goals this season:
One-timer: 14
Snap shot: 13
Wrist shot: 11
Empty net goals: 7
Other (Tap-ins, deflection, backhand, wraparound, dekes): 7
Additionally, he leads the OHL in game-winners this year with nine, and powerplay tallies with 18.
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Lardis has been lethal on the man-advantage all season long in Brantford. He operates on his weak side inside the right-side faceoff circle, where if he gets a clean one-timer off, the other team’s goalie is probably scraping the puck out from the back of the net.
“I’ve worked on my one-timer a lot as well over the past couple of years. It’s an important skill set of mine to make sure I’m capitalizing on my chances on the powerplay.”
Below is Nick’s first goal of the season. Shocker, it’s on the powerplay, and it’s a one-timer.
The power and leverage he generates off his one-timers stem from his technique and proper weight transfer.
Now, sitting at 52 goals, the quest for 60 isn’t out of reach, as the Bulldogs have 16 games left on the schedule. Eight goals in 16 games seems more than doable for the Chicago prospect.
Is the thought of hitting 60 in the back of his mind?
“Yeah for sure it is, I’ve obviously seen a couple of Instagram posts about it. He said and laughed.
“I try not to think about it too much. Obviously securing two points every night for our team is the most important part. If I continue to focus on the details of the game and improving every night, hopefully, the opportunity to score goals will come naturally.”
However, he’s not just a quick-release and one-time shooter. Lardis is very intelligent and understands how to change the angle of his release to get shots through defenders.
Here’s a perfect example:
And here again:
Both goals aren’t him going bardown or top corner. He places his shots above the pad, which is an area NHL shooters have been targeting more and more over the last five years.
But, the other aspect of his shot is how he loads the puck out from his body and then makes a subtle adjustment to bring the puck from the toe of his blade and slightly closer to him before opening up his blade.
As a forward who isn’t 6-foot-1 or taller, his speed and skating need to be at a high level for the NHL. Lardis certainly isn’t a slowpoke. He’s got the acceleration to separate himself from opponents in transition and handles the puck with ease in flight.
He’s fast and his speed helps him create opportunities by maneuvering around defenders.
With an NHL contract signed, this most likely will be his last season in junior hockey, and he will head to the professional ranks next season to play either in the AHL or ECHL — most likely the AHL.
“A big goal of mine is to play at the pro level next year. In the summer I’ll be focused on improving my strength and getting better in the areas I need to improve on.”
Lardis acknowledged that one of the hardest jumps a hockey player can make is going from the junior level to the professional ranks. He said he’s going to spend lots of time in the gym this summer working to get stronger in preparation for that next step.
Brantford has been flying a bit under the radar in the OHL’s Eastern Conference this year, mainly because everyone is talking about Oshawa and Barrie being the top dogs.
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Lardis is confident that his Bulldogs team can rival with the best Oshawa and Barrie have to offer.
“I believe we can do a lot of damage. We have a playoff team that’s built for the playoffs, I truly believe that. We like being the underdogs. A lot of teams bought at the trade deadline and we didn’t do as much, but the biggest thing for us is playing with lots of confidence and playing with that Bulldogs swagger.”
Brantford is right there in the race for first place in the east with Oshawa, Barrie, and Kingston. They are 8-1-1 in their last games and have points in six straight games.
The sky is the limit for the Bulldogs and so is the potential of Blackhawks third-rounder Nick Lardis.
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