Minnesota Wild News: Marat Khusnutdinov is a wild man

We haven’t written much about prospects overseas and how their individual seasons are going, but when we saw what happened to Marat Khusnutdinov on Thursday, we knew we had to share.

The 2020 second-round pick of the Minnesota Wild was playing in SKA St. Petersburg’s first-round game against Dinamo Minsk in the Gagarin Cup playoffs when he made a bold defensive play that got him hit in the face by a stick.

Yup!

The 20-year-old center wasted no time (because he’s the best) and came back with a simple bubble whistle and acted like nothing happened. And then, just because he really is a two-way monster on the puck, he made another sacrifice play to prevent a penalty shot.

Fortunately, it finally worked out get an assist into an empty net with the aim of rewarding him for his bravery. Just an absolute wild man. We can’t wait until he goes abroad next summer.

11 goals and 41 points in 63 KHL games this season, you could argue he could jump to the NHL right now and look no worse. He’s built similarly to other Wild prospects in that he works so damn hard and cares so much about possession that he’s a very good defender.

It’s Wild

• In more depressing news, the Wild confirmed last night that Kirill Kaprizov will be out for three to four weeks after Logan Stanley fell on top of him. In response, they invoked Sammy Walker from Iowa. [Hockey Wilderness]
• The Wild signed defenseman prospect Kyle Masters to a three-year entry-level contract after an outstanding year with the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers. [Hockey Wilderness]
• What happens after a trade is made in the NHL? A behind-the-scenes look at what really happens after one event spawns a series of problems that need to be solved. [The Athletic]
• Nobody’s scoring in Minnesota. [Defector]

Left…

• Boston Bruins pest Brad Marchand opened up about his team’s dominance of the city of Detroit trolling and his favorite turtle, the Ninja Turtle. [ESPN]
• The Edmonton Oilers came back from a deficit against the Boston Bruins last night, marking the first time the history-chasing Bruins lost after leading for 20 minutes. [Yahoo Sports]
• Oh, and Dallas Stars won last night so they are two points off our Wild’s standings. But the cool fact is they won 10-4. Ten goals! [TSN]