Does Justin Brazeau Have the Skill To Adapt To Hynes' Systems?

The narrative around Justin Brazeau has shifted quickly since the Minnesota Wild acquired him on March 6.

In his initial tweet about the trade, Michael Russo called Brazeau “good down low below the dots and around the net.” He credited Brazeau with good hands and net-front ability. Perhaps Brazeau would bring the size the Wild need for the playoffs? 

Within three days of the trade, Brazeau came off the ice for a Matt Boldy double-shift in Pittsburgh. Not a big deal, right? The Wild needed a goal, and the new guy was a logical candidate to take a shift off. But 30 minutes later, one shift on the pine had turned into an entire period. 

Brazeau finished the game against the Pittsburgh Penguins with four minutes and ten seconds of ice time. 

So what happened? Did Boston Bruins GM Don Sweeney sell Bill Guerin a bill of goods? It would be a serious blunder from a pro scouting department that’s been effective previously. Previous trade targets like Jake Middleton and Marcus Johansson became vital role players. The same goes for waiver claims Declan Chisholm and Vinnie Hinistroza. 

Still, everybody eventually misvalues. So, let’s revisit the tape on Brazeau. What is he good at? 

First, Brazeau is big. He’s not just any power forward either -- he’s big. He makes Charlie Coyle look small, along with whatever NHL defenseman he happens to be standing beside. 

If you’re wondering who he’s battling with at the net front, that’s Jamie Oleksiak, whom the Seattle Kraken lists at 6-foot-7. That’s what it takes to box out Minnesota’s newest player. 

The goal above also demonstrates a good instinct for tipping pucks. Oleksiak isn't Joe Pavelski, but Brazeau checks all the fundamentals off. Not only does he establish position, but he places his blade outside the goal's frame. That means when the goalie is square to MacAvoy’s shot, he’s out of position when the puck hits Brazeau’s blade. 

Russo wasn’t wrong about Brazeau’s hands, either. He’s strong on the puck during open-ice puck battles. Sometimes, that allows him to make up for a bobbled pass or fumbled stickhandling. 

 Brazeau combines that nose for the net and strong hands with a surprising vision to find his teammates. Tied up at the goalmouth, he can still pop this puck to Brad Marchand for a tap-in. He makes the play with his strong hands and is aware of his teammates in the middle of an unpredictable rebound. 

That vision is also on display coming out of puck battles. Specifically, Brazeau has several highlight-reel passes from behind the net. On the replay, note how this pass threads the needle between three Florida Panthers’ stick checks. 

It’s hard to find NHL tape on a player outside of his highlight reel, and it’s not a great idea to evaluate Brazeau based only on the 20 plays he made this year where he scored a point. 

We should also evaluate Brazeau analytically. Layer on The Athletic’s model, which considers an offensive or defensive rating of “zero” to be NHL average, and he evaluates clearly as a third-liner. 

The tape and the numbers agree that Brazeau is an effective NHL player. So why was he benched by a team that iced Yakov Trenin and Devin Shore for the rest of the night? 

The likely culprit is that Brazeau wasn’t yet up to speed on John Hynes’s systems in his first game with the Wild. 

Still, Brazeau is a power forward. How complicated can his role be? As the Wilderness Talk Podcast so eloquently put it, “Just go hit a guy. Go to the net!” 

That’s true enough in the offensive zone; however, unless Hynes wants to give all of the offensive zone starts to Brazeau instead of Boldy, Mats Zuccarello, and soon Kirill Kaprizov, Brazeau must fit into the other parts of Minnesota’s system. 

Minnesota’s breakout and defensive-zone coverage (two systems that work hand-in-hand) are very different from Boston’s. As identified in Jack Han’s Hockey Tactics 2025, Minnesota’s breakout is designed to maximize their mobile defensemen, while Boston’s is designed to shelter the poor footspeed of an aging roster. 

The Wild designed their defensive zone coverage to create turnovers behind the net or retrieve rebounds in the corner. From there, they change sides with a pass between the defensemen, opening space for D2 to carry the puck or seek a stretch pass to one of the two forwards skating deep. That maximizes Brock Faber, Jonas Brodin, Jared Spurgeon, and even Declan Chisholm’s skating ability.

Minnesota’s breakout demands a lot from the forwards, specifically skating ability. Because both defensemen leave the netfront, one of the forwards swings low to protect the netfront at a slow glide. If that low forward receives a pass, they must pick up speed to carry the puck north. 

The other two forwards must get vertical quickly. One way to do that is by leaving the zone early. They must quickly get back if they misread the play and create a turnover. If they don’t take that risk, they’ll need exceptional speed to effectively threaten their opponents off the rush. 

Brazeau’s foot speed is well below average. His NHL Edge tracking data shows that his top speed is around the 10th or 15th percentile of NHL players, which is reasonable for a player of his size. 

Compare that to Marcus Foligno, a 33-year-old power forward, and you get a sense of Brazeau’s lack of speed. Some of his numbers may come up now that he’s playing in a system that demands faster skating on the breakout. Still, after 60 games, his top speed is likely accurate. 

So why wasn’t this a problem in Boston? The answer is their slow-developing breakout. 

The Bruins’ defensive zone coverage is designed to allow shots from the point, which can be steered into the corner or passes into the corner. Both should result in a board battle, which Boston’s larger, slower roster is well-suited to win. Then, players methodically work the puck up the strong-side boards. 

If the Bruins find the strong side overloaded with too many opposing skaters, they leak a slow reverse pass to the weak side of the ice to be handled by the defensemen. While that puck slides around the boards, the forwards have time to skate north. 

That applies to other areas of Boston’s systems compared to the Wild’s. For example, Minnesota’s forecheck is more aggressive and fluid than the Bruins’, which aims to set up a 1-2-2 neutral zone defense. Again, that’s designed to mask Boston’s skating. 

There are also important differences in the offensive zone. While Brazeau’s job is to go to the net, which is similar in both cases, the style of offensive possession is very different. 

Minnesota seeks to set up possession along the half-wall and then attack downhill. This offensive style is called a 2-3, meaning two players attack deep while three players support behind them. 

The 2-3 is more peripheral but allows players like Chisholm, Faber, and Spurgeon to attack deeper into the opponent’s zone. It also creates longer offensive possessions and usually means one of the forwards can help defend the rush, which is part of Minnesota’s defensive excellence this season. 

Below is an example of that play. Notice how all three forwards peel away from the net and toward the blue line, eventually opening space at the front of the net for Gaudreau’s tip-in. 

In contrast, Boston runs a more traditional 3-2 in which the forwards chase pucks, win battles, and then feed passes to the point. As the puck slides low-to-high, Brazeau has time to establish himself at the net-front. It also offers many opportunities to pass from behind the net into the slot, which generated more than one of Brazeau’s assists in Boston. 

So, how can Brazeau get faster? How can he produce in a different offensive system? 

The answer is simple, if unsatisfying: Brazeau needs time to adjust to new plays and new players. With time to learn Minnesota’s breakout and defensive zone coverage, Brazeau will correctly decide when to leave the zone early, which can cover for his low-gear skating without putting him out of position. 

Brazeau’s offensive zone possessions will become more valuable as he develops offensive chemistry. Brazeau’s strong hands, passing skills, and vision should eventually help his teammates maintain offensive possession. But first, he’ll need to learn whether to charge the net or peel to the point for a pass. 

Signs of improvement were already clear against the Colorado Avalanche. Brazeau played a more complete workload, logging 8:46 TOI -- all at five-on-five. Whatever issues got him benched against the Penguins didn’t keep him off the ice against Colorado. 

The Wild paid a steep price to bring in Brazeau at the trade deadline, and there are good reasons for it. As with any deadline addition, he must quickly evolve his game to fit Minnesota’s play style. Failing that, the juice won’t be worth the squeeze.