Whether or not Don Sweeney lands any help for his team by now and Friday\u2019s trade deadline, it is a good bet that the Bruins\u2019 GM will be shaking the tree to see what falls out until the 3 pm cut-off.<\/p>\n
With all the names to which the B\u2019s have been linked over the past couple of weeks, from Robert Thomas to Rasmus Ristolainen to Oliver Ekman-Larson (yet again), you have to assume that Sweeney is at least doing his due diligence. The work may not yield anything \u2013 in fact, he did lay the groundwork for standing pat by saying on Monday that wasn\u2019t going to be as aggressive in past years \u2013 but his past says he\u2019ll give it a shot.<\/p>\n
Most years he\u2019s been a buyer, and he\u2019s bought big, landing such players like Rick Nash, Taylor Hall, Tyler Bertuzzi and Dmitry Orlov. None took the B\u2019s to a Stanley Cup, but it wasn\u2019t for the GM\u2019s lack of trying. Last season, he had to perform a major gear shift, not just selling but off-loading his captain but several other regulars.<\/p>\n
At the moment, it looks like his best deal was with Toronto for Brandon Carlo (ask any Maple Leaf fan). The B\u2019s landed young center Fraser Minten, who looks like a mainstay in the B\u2019s middle for the next generation, a top-5 protected first round pick in 2026 and a fourth round pick in 2025 (defenseman Vashek Blanar).<\/p>\n
But a sneaky good deal was one that was met with little more than a shrug at the time it happened. The B\u2019s sent Justin Brazeau to the Minnesota Wild for former Bruin Jakub Lauko, a 2026 sixth round pick and a little known forward by the name of Marat Khusnutdinov.<\/p>\n
Khusnutdinov did not come without pedigree. Minnesota used the 37th overall pick to take him in the 2020 draft. But he was not able to distinguish himself in his short time with the Wild, compiling just 3-8\u201311 in 73 games.<\/p>\n
He showed more than that down the stretch with the B\u2019s, scoring three goals with two assists in 18 games. Still, it was a bit of an eyebrow-raiser when the B\u2019s signed him to a two-year extension worth $925,000.<\/p>\n
Now that looks like money and roster spot well spent. After starting slowly and enduring some healthy scratches at the start of the season, he has become a fixture in the B\u2019s lineup, wherever coach Marco Sturm chooses to play him. Right now, he\u2019s getting icetime with David Pastrnak and Elias Lindholm. At 23, the 5-11, 184-pound spark plug could only be scratching the surface of what he can be. In the B\u2019s 2-1 win over the Penguins on Tuesday, in which he scored his 13th goal, his presence was felt all over the ice.<\/p>\n
For first-year coach Sturm, Khusnutdinov was a blank slate.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just getting better and better,\u201d said Sturm, whose team was facing the Predators in Nashville on Thursday. \u201cWhen I signed here, I didn\u2019t know him at all. I\u2019d heard his name before but I didn\u2019t know him as a player. I saw him in a few clips in games after I signed. Before training camp, we didn\u2019t know where he was going to be. Is he going to be an up-and-down guy, minor league, NHL? I didn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kind of saw something right from the start and I told Don \u2018there\u2019s something I like.\u2019 He didn\u2019t have a good preseason, though. He really didn\u2019t. But he was getting better and better and he just has that motor. He hunts a lot of pucks, he\u2019s very smart. He covers and he does a lot of work, especially right now with Lindy and Pasta. I feel like those guys need a guy like that. He\u2019s on his way to being more and more consistent. But you see a game like (Tuesday), and he was pretty damn good. I like his development, I like where he\u2019 heading, too. He\u2019s not done yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
What Khusnitdinov\u2019s ceiling is remains to be seen. He has the work ethic and doggedness on the puck like an effective bottom-six player. In the offensive zone, he will sometimes still take to long with the puck when he\u2019s trying to create and the chance goes by the wayside. But he\u2019s getting better at that and, with his speed and stick skills, he could become a fixture in the top-six. Right now, Sturm is toggling him with Morgan Geekie on that top line, sometimes when they have an offensive-zone faceoff, sometimes by feel. Sturm believes he can become more of an offensive producer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think so. I really do. But I like his two-way game and his mindset ,his details of the game. I think he\u2019s one of our better killers. So I like that,\u201d said Sturm. \u201cAnd I can put him anywhere, center, right, left, you name it, because he\u2019s that smart. There\u2019s something to it. He still needs to grow. There are things he needs to get better at, he still needs to be more consistent. But I like where he\u2019s heading.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Moscow native\u2019s English is still not the strongest, at least when it comes to dealing with monolingual reporters. But Sturm said he\u2019s able to communicate with him through the universal language of hockey and the message gets across clearly.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe gets it,\u201d said Sturm.<\/p>\n
In the room with his teammates, he\u2019s a lot less inhibited.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s probably the opposite of what you guys see, which is great,\u201d said Geekie with a laugh. \u201cHe\u2019s super outgoing and has a lot of fun. He\u2019s a great person and he cares about everyone. He\u2019s definitely a team-first guy, even when he was getting scratched at the start of the year. He was right there alongside us the whole time. It means a lot to us to see him have success.\u201d<\/p>\n
That he\u2019s gifted was no secret to Khusnutdinov\u2019s teammates. It was a matter of putting it together.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all knew he can fly. He\u2019s got tons of skill,\u201d said Geekie. \u201cWe forget that he\u2019s a young kid and with the language barrier. He\u2019\u2019s matured a lot in his game and I think you\u2019ve seen that come out when he puts himself in good spots to create those opportunities, both offensively and defensively. I think he\u2019s been given the opportunity to play with top-six, top-nine guys for lots of the season and he\u2019s produced. It\u2019s a league of opportunity at the end of the day and I think he\u2019s done a good job of seizing that. But it\u2019s to nobody\u2019s surprise in this room.\u201d<\/p>\n
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