Frank Nazar: Blackhawks Contract, Stats and Suspension

Frank Nazar is an American center with the Chicago Blackhawks, the 13th overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, and a World Championship gold medallist. Frank Nazar signed a seven-year contract extension with Chicago on 21 August 2025 at a cap hit of just under $6.6 million. Michigan listed him as Frank Nazar III, and he spent his childhood being told he was a winger.

Fast facts: Frank Nazar
Current team	Chicago Blackhawks, NHL
Shirt number	91
Position	Center
Shoots	Right
Born	14 January 2004. The NHL’s register says Detroit; his college and the Chicago Sun-Times give his hometown as Mount Clemens, a Detroit suburb
Height / weight	5’10” (178 cm) / 190 lbs, per the NHL, Hockey-Reference and the Blackhawks. CapWages is alone on the height, at 5’9″
Drafted	2022, first round, 13th overall, Chicago Blackhawks
Contract status	Seven years at a $6,599,991 cap hit, signed 21 August 2025, running 2026-27 through 2032-33
Previous clubs	Rockford IceHogs, University of Michigan, U.S. National Team Development Program

Is Frank Nazar a good hockey player?

Chicago paid Nazar as a core player before he had completed two full NHL seasons. By the club’s own account, he led all Blackhawks rookies in goals, assists, and points in his first season, was the only NHL rookie that year to score on a penalty shot, and earned AHL All-Star honors that same season.

Chicago’s general manager Kyle Davidson has been consistent about what he is buying. “He competes like nobody else,” Davidson said when the Blackhawks drafted him. At the extension: “He drives play using his elite speed and playmaking abilities, creating problems for opponents and opportunities for teammates every night.”

The channels for every Chicago game are in our guide to how to watch the Chicago Blackhawks.

What are Frank Nazar’s career stats?

Season	Team	League	GP	G	A	P	PIM
2019-20	United States U16	Youth Olympics	4	3	2	5	8
2020-21	U.S. National U17 Team	NTDP	45	28	27	55	20
2021-22	U.S. National U18 Team	NTDP	56	28	42	70	20
2021-22	United States U18	U18 Worlds	6	3	6	9	4
2022-23	University of Michigan	NCAA	13	2	5	7	0
2023-24	University of Michigan	NCAA	41	17	24	41	18
2023-24	United States U20	World Juniors	7	0	8	8	2
2023-24	Chicago Blackhawks	NHL	3	1	0	1	0
2024-25	Rockford IceHogs	AHL	21	11	13	24	8
2024-25	Chicago Blackhawks	NHL	53	12	14	26	24
2024-25	United States	World Championship	10	6	6	12	6
2025-26	Chicago Blackhawks	NHL	66	15	26	41	26

Completed seasons. His NHL totals through 2025-26 are 28 goals and 68 points in 122 games, with 50 penalty minutes. He has no playoff games, as Chicago has not qualified since he arrived.

Nazar’s points per game in the NHL rose from 0.49 in his first full season to 0.62 in his second, up about a quarter. He also missed 14 games in the middle of that second season and still finished with a career high.

What is Frank Nazar’s contract with the Chicago Blackhawks?

Chicago signed Nazar to a seven-year extension on 21 August 2025. The cap hit is $6,599,991 per season; the total is $46,199,937 per CapWages’ table, and it runs from 2026-27 through 2032-33, taking him to free agency in 2033. From 1 July 2031, he will have a modified no-trade clause based on a 20-team list.

Before that, he signed a three-year entry-level deal on 13 April 2024 for a $950,000 cap hit. One caution: CapWages’ running text and its own table disagree on that entry-level total by $1.8 million, a gap consistent with performance bonuses.

Why does Frank Nazar play center?

Because of a COVID outbreak. Nazar told The Hockey News he had spent his entire childhood asking to be moved: “I had asked my coaches my whole life, ‘Put me at center,’ and they always told me ‘No, you’re wing.'”

It did not go well when he arrived in the national development program. “Finally, my first year at the NTDP, I started off as a wing, and I was not doing well at all,” he said. “Actually, I was pretty horrible, I’m not going to lie.” Then the roster thinned out: “Then we had a bunch of guys get sick with COVID, and we needed a center.” He asked the coach one more time, half joking, and got a yes: “I had an amazing game and never looked back from there.”

It worked. In that under-17 season, he led the team in scoring with 55 points in 45 games, one more than Isaac Howard, on a roster that also included Cutter Gauthier, Lane Hutson and Logan Cooley.

Why was Frank Nazar suspended?

On 8 October 2026, away at the New York Islanders, Nazar hit Bo Horvat at 18:25 of the third period and was given a match penalty after review. He had a hearing with the NHL’s Department of Player Safety the next day and received a two-game suspension without pay. The league’s own release put the forfeited pay at $68,041.14, which goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund. He returned on 15 October.

NHL Player Safety said only that he was suspended “for an illegal check to the head against NY Islanders’ Bo Horvat.” That is a rules classification, not a finding about intent. Nazar described the mechanics of the hit: “I kept my shoulders, kept my elbow in, didn’t lunge or reach or anything,” he said. “Just skated right through.” Horvat was placed in concussion protocol, cleared it, and played two days later. No injury was announced.

Where is Frank Nazar from?

The NHL’s register gives Detroit as his birthplace, while the University of Michigan and the Chicago Sun-Times both give his hometown as Mount Clemens, a suburb about 20 miles northeast of downtown. Either way, he is a Detroit kid, and the family’s link to the sport runs through the city’s old arena: the Sun-Times has reported that his parents owned a parking garage across the street from Joe Louis Arena.

He came up through the Detroit Honeybaked and Little Caesars youth programs, winning five state titles, then spent two seasons in the national development program and two at Michigan. Surgery in October 2022, later described as hip surgery, cost him most of his first college season; he did not debut for Michigan until 10 February 2023.

Going back has stayed a thing. “Every time I play there, it’s a blast,” he said. “I always have, like, 100 family members, so that makes it a lot of fun.”

Who are Frank Nazar’s parents and sisters?

His father is Frank Nazar Jr. and his mother is Gina Nazar. Neither of them played sports. He has three older sisters, all adults, whom Michigan’s athletics department names with graduation years: Kate (Western Michigan 2015), Victoria (Western Michigan 2018) and Amanda (Oakland 2021).

His father spoke on draft night. “Our family is pretty loud and proud,” Frank Nazar Jr. told the Sun-Times.

What has Frank Nazar won with the United States?

He won World Championship gold in 2025 on his senior debut, with 12 points in 10 games, as the United States took the title for the first time in 92 years. He added world junior gold in 2024 with eight assists in seven games, under-18 silver in 2022 and Youth Olympic silver in 2020.

He was not named to the United States squad for the 2026 Olympics.