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By Neil Urbanski -
I remember exactly when I knew without a doubt that Marco Rossi was ready for the NHL.
It was the weekend of January 20 during the 2022-23 season, and the Iowa Wild were playing back-to-back home games against the Milwaukee Admirals. The Minnesota Wild had sent Rossi down to the AHL earlier that season after an unsuccessful start to his NHL career that saw him record zero goals and only one assist in the 16 games before his demotion.
At the time, Bill Guerin declared that Rossi needed to develop some “f-you” to his game. And after that demotion in November 2022, the young Austrian player found it in Des Moines.
Rossi was a demon on that weekend in January 2023. He wasn’t just the best player on the ice; he dominated. On Friday, he notched two assists, including one where he circled the offensive zone with the puck like Kirill Kaprizov before dishing to an open teammate to create a goal.
On Saturday, Rossi scored twice, including a yeoman-like backdoor goal in which he outmuscled a defenseman to bang home a rebound with 15 seconds remaining to force overtime.
My buddies and I left Des Moines that weekend full of excitement over what we had just seen from Rossi in those two games. He kept it up for the rest of the season and earned a late-season call-up to rejoin the big club in Minnesota. He hasn’t gone back since.
Rossi found his swagger in Iowa. He learned to be a pro in North America. Now it’s time for Marat Khusnutdinov to do the same.
87. 103. 116. 188. Those are the number of AHL games it took for Brandon Duhaime, Connor Dewar, Rossi, and Mason Shaw, respectively, to develop their games and become NHL-ready.
0. That’s the number of AHL games that Marat Khusnutdinov has played. However, after the Wild sent him to Iowa this week, that number will soon change.
Duhaime was 24 when he became an NHL regular with the Wild. Dewar and Rossi were 22. Shaw, partly due to suffering numerous ACL tears, was 23.
Khusnutdinov is 22. What’s more, unlike the four players listed above, he didn’t have the opportunity to play some of his development years on North American-sized rinks.
Duhaime played juniors in Canada and the United States before playing college hockey at Providence. Dewar and Shaw grew up playing in Canada, and they, along with Rossi, spent some of their most important development years playing in Canadian Major Junior leagues. (Dewar and Rossi played in the OHL, Shaw in the WHL.)
On the other hand, outside of a couple of international tournaments, Khusnutdinov didn’t spend any time playing on NHL-sized rinks until he joined the Wild at the end of last season. Instead, he played on the larger international rinks where there’s more space, different angles, less physical play, and more time to make decisions with the puck.
William Eklund, an emerging star for the San Jose Sharks who played 54 AHL games, described this difference well, saying that in the NHL, “you get a little less time and have to make a decision with the puck earlier. …You have like a split-second. In the NHL, it’s close to the net, but [in Europe] it’s so much wider, so you can skate around players easier.”
The AHL plays an incredibly important role in developing NHL players. So far this season, 68 players have made their NHL debuts after spending time there. Last season, the number was 97. And as Duhaime, Dewar, Rossi, Shaw, and many other Wild players have demonstrated over the years, the time players spend there can be invaluable.
In the NHL, everything is high-intensity, big-money hockey. Owners want wins. Coaches demand execution and high attention to detail. Every mistake can lead to a goal against.
After 78 NHL games in which the speedy, hard-working winger produced 3 goals and 7 assists while also struggling on the penalty kill (along with the rest of the team, to be fair), it makes sense for him to spend some time building his game and confidence in Iowa.
Winning is still important in the AHL, but it often takes a backseat to development. A young prospect can make a mistake at key times and not find himself stapled to the bench in the same situation next game. They can bite on a deceptive play and lose their coverage on the penalty kill, like Khusnutdinov did in the above clip from last week’s game against the Colorado Avalanche, and not see the highlights all over the internet.
Every NHL player was a superstar growing up, but only a handful remain one once they make The Show. The rest have to find their niche if they want to stay. That means learning to translate their strengths into the roles they’re expected to play and developing new dimensions that make them better all-around players in a league where everyone has game.
For many, the AHL is the place to do that. They’ll play on NHL-sized rinks in NHL-like systems against grown men, many of whom have or will play in the NHL. Many consider it the second-best league in the world, and if a young player can learn to dominate shifts there on a nightly basis, they can grow into an NHL player.
Khusnutdinov can become an effective NHL player. He has the speed, tenacity, and work ethic required for smaller players like him. What he doesn’t have is the experience. He doesn’t have the swagger. But like those that came before him, now is his opportunity to get it. Once he does, he’ll be back in the NHL to stay.
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