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  • Wild Acquire Justin Brazeau From Bruins Hours Before Trade Deadline


    Image courtesy of © Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images
    Thomas Williams

     

    After trading for Gustav Nyquist last week, the Minnesota Wild have again dipped their toes in the trade waters hours before Friday afternoon's trade deadline.

    The Wild have acquired 6-foot-5 winger Justin Brazeau from the Boston Bruins. In exchange, they are sending back young center Marat Khusnutdinov, pending unrestricted free agent Jakub Lauko, and a 2026 sixth-round pick.

    Brazeau is 27 years old and will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, but you have to imagine that the Wild will be interested in re-signing the player before he hits the open market if he gets off to a good start in St. Paul. He has a massive body and can move around the ice well enough for a forward of his size.

    Through 57 NHL games this year, his first full season up in the National, Brazeau has scored 10 goals and 20 points. Not bad at all for a player averaging fewer than 13 minutes a night on a mediocre Bruins team. If he can provide some offensive juice to a Minnesota bottom-six forward group that is certifiably juiceless, then it is a move that is no doubt a winner.

    Going the other way, Khusnutdinov is a player who might still have way more to show. The Wild thrust their former second-round pick right into the NHL after coming overseas from the KHL towards the end of last season and never showed any offensive jump. Essentially, he was and still is a young player who has been cemented as a bottom-six center and never anything more than that. In 57 games this season, Khusnutdinov has scored two goals and seven points.

    The Wild are also letting Jakub Lauko return home to Boston. The Bruins traded him to Minnesota last June, and just months away from free agency, he gets to play for them again. He almost certainly would not be staying with the Wild as he has battled injuries this season and never really gained footing in St. Paul.

    So it's a prospect who the Wild might be selling as high as they can on before he either crumbles back to not even being worth a roster spot (or he can also pop off in a different system with more focus on development and have him play actual AHL games) -- all for a pending free agent who the Wild will get a first look on and try to re-sign before the end of the season. 

    It might be an inconsequential move, but it is the dice roll that the Wild currently need to make. With almost no cap room, getting Brazeau and his league-minimum contract for a player who can certainly score more goals than the player you are giving up is the low-commitment gamble that a team fighting for security in the standings can make.

    If nothing goes well, the Wild sent a player who did not fulfill his hype to Boston and gained a roster spot they can give to a different promising center like Danila Yurov, Hunter Haight, or anyone else willing to win the battle next training camp.

    All in all, not too shabby.

     

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    This is about the dumbest trade I've seen. The nhl has changed, billy can't seem to figure that out.

    Then we go into specifics(he's always hurt and not a point producer) but hey let's chalk this up as a win. Because in mn we just follow the status quo, right?

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    There's the right shot winger everyone says the Wild need, I guess.

    Not sure it makes the team better, but I imagine they have some plan...

    He did score a bunch of points in the OHL. Maybe he has more to offer in the NHL?

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    5 minutes ago, Need4speed99 said:

    This is about the dumbest trade I've seen. The nhl has changed, billy can't seem to figure that out.

    Then we go into specifics(he's always hurt and not a point producer) but hey let's chalk this up as a win. Because in mn we just follow the status quo, right?

    Is this guy Latandresse 2.0 or trenin 2.0?

     Don’t be dumb bill

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    Another player that will hopefully earn his contract in the playoffs. I hope MK & JL do well in Boston. My biggest question now is… Could there be one more trade coming before the TD tomorrow? 

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    Brock Nelson to Colorado (and yeah, for way too much).

    Mikko Rantanen likely headed to Dallas, and we answer.with…

    BRAZEAU?!??  Is it next year yet?

    Kidding aside, we all know we have limited $ to work with. I’m still holding out hope for something else to happen, and it’s only fair to wait to judge this trade until after we see Brazeau actually playing for us. I loved the potential of Khus, but interested in seeing what Brazeau brings to the table. 🤞

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    All I would say is we gave up 2 that didn’t produce at all, one of which was injury prone. They sucked on the PK. Marat has potential and we saw “brief” glimpses of this at times and asked ourselves where has this been and why can’t he be consistent?  Yes he was 4th line with crappy wingers so likely told to throttle back. His only offensive move to drive in the zone, stop and spin then lose the puck. 
     

    in the end I’m willing to roll the dice with a larger guy. 
     

    the Wild don’t hit and we need someone other than moose to hit someone out there. We have too many small twirling forwards that the league has figured out will never challenge you on the forecheck. We just spin away. Any D-man worth a damn knows this and just shows patients. 
     

    the D’s and Shaw at least went out and kicked ass even if they couldn’t finish. More fun to watch and certainly gave us a more physical presence.
     

    Never understood how they said the Wild were hard to play against?  We are not physical enough for the playoffs. we played a good system and with Krill and Ek and a full D core we could sustain offensive play where grit and identity lead to goals. We have lost that. Seattle showed how we had to hold on 30 minutes to preserve a 1 goal lead and lucked out. We are a dump, sit back not chase and try to clog up neutral zone and hold on for life in our own zone. 

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    5 hours ago, Secord Sucks said:

    Mikko Rantanen likely to Dallas, and we answer.with

    Will be interesting to see if this is true.  To play armchair GM, what does Dallas give up?  Next year they have $25M in cap space before Ranty.  They have tons of UFA's and RFA's including Benn, Duchene and Johnston, Borque and Granlund. If Ranty gets $14M, it will not leave them much to fill their other 7 roster spots

    Could see a trade centered around Johnston.  Can't see who else Carolina would want in return.

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    Marat did everything he was told to do, and had so much potential, speed, heart...... this is a stupid move, there was no need to ship him out for THIS - why not be patient with him?

    well - we know what happens to MN players who are traded to boston. congrats on SC win soon Marat!

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    I'd say I'm whelmed by this trade. Will it move the needle? Maybe, maybe not.

    Love the hustle, speed, tenacity of both Khus & Lauko but simply put Khus was not producing and Lauko's got the injury concerns. Did we give up on Khus too soon? Possibly. 

    The thing that worries me is we just got even slower. Billy clearly wants to build a defensive team from the goalie out and not a high flyer with questionable depth and D like Edmonton but we just added another 1-ton and not a Corvette.

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    I think this is all about bringing in a 4th line guy, some size, and can put a couple in the net. I liked watching Khus, but lets be honest about what he brought. A good fore and back checker..... that's about it, he has 2 goals all season. Always had hope he would take a next step but he hasn't. The wild had 3 total right handed players, one of which is now Vinnie. Marat is 5'11" 176, Justin is listed as 6'5" or 6'6" 227. Per the Bruins blogs he sounds like a big body, decent hands and vision down low. They had hopes of being a net front guy on the PP and "Brazeau impressed with his willingness to be physical and his presence on the forecheck, traits the Bruins needed down the stretch."

    I view this as a future 3rd or 4th line guy if he gets resigned. Lots of people wanted the Wild to get some size, well there it is.  Plus being right handed and the ability to "bang down low". Lauko is always hurt, Khus, like him or not, produced less than Justin and didn't have much size. Best we can hope is he takes off a bit like Vinnie and contributes, and if the wild make the playoffs we can hope he has some snarl, take a page from Folignos book and not Jordan Greenway. This is not a get them over the hump type deal, try viewing this as a solidifying the bottom 6 and making them bigger and tougher.  May be all pie in the sky, but as fans, what else do we have?

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    A lot of this hinges on the Rossi situation.  Rossi being entrenched as the best center the Wild have (for now), and Ek (2nd best when healthy, and the most important) leads to the thought process.  Was Khusnutdinov good enough to be the 3rd or 4th option?  I'm not exactly sure.  He wasn't exactly doing enough to justify it right now.  I think if the coaches saw the offense, they would have given him the rope.

    They are going to pivot to Gaudreau and Hartman until Yurov shows up next season.  Gaudreau is just plain better right now.  They didn't give up the crazy haul for a month of Nelson.  I doubt they are beating Dallas whether Rantanen goes there or not.  But they aren't fooling themselves into blowing shit up riding Khus and Lauko as offensively challenged 4th liners.  

     

     

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    Brazeau is 27 years old. He's played in 79 NHL games and 189 games in the AHL along with 268 games in the OHL. Sounds like a border line career minor leaguer.  I liked Lauko but couldn't stay healthy. Wasn't as big of a fan of Marat as many are here. Lightning speed and some good hands but just couldn't produce. And he was going to get pulverized in the playoffs. We rail on Rossi for his size but Marat had a couple inches on him but gave up about 15 pounds to him and didn't produce. 

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    1 hour ago, Citizen Strife said:

    Marat may end up a better player, but he was a replaceable cog right now 

    I would rather we'd given Khuz another year to develop (and Laukzy), but I'm also not heartbroken he's gone because not only was he tiny (and Laukzy's groin broken) but he really wasn't even decent at anything: faceoffs, creating offense, PK'ing.  So bro, what would you say you do here.  

    Now to trade him for 27 year old Latandresse Light who's a bubble NHL'r looks like another Bill "I'm playing 3D chess while they're playing checkers" Guerin kind of move.  Just don't eat the chess pieces Bill.

    #don'tbedumbbill

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    35 minutes ago, M_Nels said:

    but we just added another 1-ton and not a Corvette.

    Early word on Brazzers is that he's got good hands (Latandresse) but he's slow (Trenin).  Hopefully he's not heartless like Trenin and he's more physical than Latandresse.  If he's Trenin with handles, I'm very disappointed.

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    34 minutes ago, IllicitFive said:

    think this is all about bringing in a 4th line guy, some size,

    It kills me that we continue to give up assets for 4th line guys.  These stiffs should be cheap in the offseason (Lauko) or picks up for peanuts on the waiver wire.

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    37 minutes ago, IllicitFive said:

    try viewing this as a solidifying the bottom 6 and making them bigger and tougher.

    I assume this is the intent with this trade.  The eye test will tell us if the scouting dept deserves credit or if this is another one off the uprights.

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    1 hour ago, OldDutchChip said:

    Marat did everything he was told to do, and had so much potential, speed, heart...... this is a stupid move, there was no need to ship him out for THIS - why not be patient with him?

    well - we know what happens to MN players who are traded to boston. congrats on SC win soon Marat!

    Marat will turn out to be a solid player for a long time.  The  Brazeau will disappear.  And we are doing this to drag a team into a first round loss.    

    If you could not unload Hartman or Trenin to anyone, they should have just let it ride until the offseason a few weeks.

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    1 hour ago, M_Nels said:

    I'd say I'm whelmed by this trade. Will it move the needle? Maybe, maybe not.

    Love the hustle, speed, tenacity of both Khus & Lauko but simply put Khus was not producing and Lauko's got the injury concerns. Did we give up on Khus too soon? Possibly. 

    The thing that worries me is we just got even slower. Billy clearly wants to build a defensive team from the goalie out and not a high flyer with questionable depth and D like Edmonton but we just added another 1-ton and not a Corvette.

    While I agree with a lot of what you said, this team is tiny and could use size extremely bad.

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