Wild 2nd round draft pick, Marat Khusnutdinov, scored the OT winner last night as Russia ended Sweden's 54 game round-robin win streak. Sweden had win 54 straight in round-robin play, dating back to 12/31/06 when they lost to the US in overtime.
Khusnutdinov is a highly skilled player and quite honestly was a steal for the Wild in round two. His combination of speed, skill, playmaking ability, along with a strong two way game give Wild fans even greater hope that the future for this team is very bright.
In addition to his game winner, Khusnutdinov also assisted on the second Russian goal as well as started the play that resulted in their go ahead tally in the third period. That third goal scored by, Kirill Kirsanov, also would not have found the back of the net had it not been for Khusnutdinov's presence in front of the Swedes cage.
The kid can play. As we discussed on draft day when the Wild made the trade with Nashville to send Luke Kunin to Predators in exchange for Nick Bonino and more importantly the ability to move up and select Khusnutdinov. That deal will be analyzed as time goes on for sure.
For the Wild the immediate need was addressed adding the veteran center in Bonino. The second part of adding Bonino is that his contract is up at the end of this season giving the Wild a few more options. If the opportunity presents itself for the Wild to move Bonino to a contender at the trade deadline they can recoup an asset for a player that does not necessarily fit into the long term plan. As for Kunin, he was do to get paid as an RFA and with the Wild in transition it did not make fiscal sense to lock themselves into a deal if he was not seen as a top six forward moving ahead. Then the prize asset in the trade becomes Khusnutdinov who looks like he could be a real key contributor once he is ready.
Bill Guerin is working to restructure the Wild and seeing some of this young talent gives hope to Wild fans that sooner rather than later they will finally be treated to watching some very skilled home grown talent donning the Green, Gold, and Iron Range Red.