Boston Bruins Sign Marat Khusnutdinov

Boston Bruins Sign Marat Khusnutdinov

[Music] welcome back to B&G Hockey where it’s always black and gold at yesterday’s media availability after the draft Don Sweeney did say we’d be getting some clarity on their RFAS as soon as today and he was a man of his word as we get not only one but two brand new contracts this is the player I’m most excited about of the two so that’s the video I’m going to start with but stay tuned for the next contract in a later video that being said let’s talk about it the Bruins signed forward Merritt Husnadinov to a 2-year contract extension with a cap hit of 925K per season he’s a 22-year-old 5’11 left shot centerman originally selected in the second round of the 2020 draft 37th overall by the Minnesota Wild in his entire NHL career he’s played in 91 games scoring six goals 10 assists for a total of 16 points his last season in the KHL in 49 games he had six goals 14 assists for a total of 20 points and last season he played with the Minnesota Wild and the Boston Bruins where in 75 games he had five goals seven assists for a total of 12 points now for those of you who don’t remember this was one of the players acquired in the Justin Brazo trade with the Wild along with Jacob Lalco one of the many fantastic moves Don Sweeney made at last year’s deadline in 57 games with the Wilds he had two goals five assists and a total of seven points and he really didn’t play all that much for them pretty much was just a fourthline center and a scratch guy in fact when I watched the Wild I actually thought this guy should be playing more cuz he’s super noticeable in the little amount of ice time he had when he came to the Bruins he moved up and down the lineup and played a bit of a bigger role where in 18 games he had three goals two assists and a total of five points so even though the stats don’t really jump off the page this is a player that’s a lot more than what his stats have shown i really like this player for the Bruins and I think this was a sneaky job by Don Sweeney let’s start off with the contract itself 925k is the exact same cap hit this player had last season and we know these young guys in today’s game he’s a 22-year-old and a lot of them think you should pay me based off what I’m going to do even if I haven’t done it yet so it’s really nice to see that cap hit stay low especially if this player is able to outperform that cap hit a lot easier than if he was making a significant raise it’s a lot harder for him to be valuable i also like that it’s a 2-year contract he’s 22 years old so he fits into that young wave of the next Bruins and that rebuild that we’re trying to do on the fly but he can also help you now he’s an NHL ready player and I like that having two years we can see how he does if he doesn’t work out it’s not an eight-year contract but if it does work out you have this player on another season at a really low cap hit i think this guy absolutely is going to outperform this contract he was already playing a bigger role with the Bruins now hopefully they add a lot more depth up front than they had last season but even on the fourth line this is a guy who brings a ton of speed he’s very noticeable on every shift just always competing blocking shots has some sneaky skill i could see this guy putting up 10 15 goals pretty easily especially if he’s going to play full-time at the NHL level and play with some better players i could see his ceiling being more of a nice third liner he was a second round pick so at one point this was supposed to be a pretty solid NHL player and I still think he has plenty of runway to hit that ceiling and I’m happy the Bruins are going to keep this guy around and it only costs us a trade of Justin Brazo to get this guy and I think already he’s a better player than him the Bruins are looking to bring speed skill and youth to their lineup and this guy brings all of that along with his versatility his ability to play both center and wing so he will absolutely be making the team next season whether it be in a third line role or fourth line role or even a depth role if we add plenty of other forwards up front i’m excited to see him continue his career as a Boston Bruin i really like this guy and I’m really happy he’s going to be sticking around now that being said it doesn’t look like his fellow teammate Jacob Laco might be sticking around they do have the same agent it sounds like Loco will go to UFA status that being said he could always come back i did think LaCo was a pretty nice fit here again seemed to bring a new energy to the room so I would like to see him come back as well but if that’s all we get out of the Brazo trade like I said I think that Husnadinov is already the best player out of that package and I think he’s only getting better the Bruins still have about 23 million in cap space even with Husnadinov on the roster obviously they still have to sign a guy like Geeky hopefully they can keep that under six somewhere in the 5 million range that would be a really solid deal for him and they’ll still have plenty to play with when it comes to free agency cuz they still have quite a few holes at the NHL level but now they have one less with the signing of Merritt Husnadinov so let me know your thoughts what do you think of this contract what do you think of this player and what do you think’s next for Don Sweeney and the Boston Bruins leave that down below in the comments if you enjoyed this video make sure to give it a big like and if you haven’t already subscribe [Music]

The Boston Bruins sign RFA Marat Khusnutdinov to a contract extension. In this video I give my thoughts on Khusnutdinov as a player and my thoughts on this new contract for the Bruins. I also look at Khusnutdinov’s NHL/KHL career so far and talk about how we can continue to grow his game next season. Lastly I give an update on the Bruins cap space moving forward and the future of fellow RFA forward Jakub Lauko.