Boston Bruins
“He worked really hard in practice, and he just waited for his opportunity and then he took advantage.”
All Marat Khusnutdinov was looking for was an opportunity.
Despite breaking camp in the NHL ranks this fall, the 23-year-old forward found himself riding on the carousel of fourth-line wingers on Boston’s depth chart to open the 2025-26 campaign.
Entering Tuesday’s home game against the Islanders, Khusnutdinov had appeared in just six of Boston’s first 11 games of the season.
The 2020 second-round pick’s crafty puck play and crisp edge work painted the picture of an NHL forward with legitimate middle-six upside. But through the first three-plus weeks of NHL action, he couldn’t crack a spot beyond Boston’s checking line.
Tuesday marked a step in the right direction, with Bruins head coach Marco Sturm opting to elevate the young forward on Boston’s top line next to David Pastrnak and Elias Lindholm for a majority of the team’s eventual 5-2 win over New York.
While he didn’t record a point in that victory, Khusnutdinov’s knack for hounding pucks and doing the dirty work for his established linemates caught the eye of Sturm.
Ahead of Thursday’s game against the Sabres, it was a no-brainer for Boston’s head coach to keep Khusnutdinov on Boston’s first line. Not just because of his high upside, but because of how the skilled forward handled an uneven start to a new season.
“It’s hard to scratch those kinds of players because they almost didn’t do anything wrong, you know. But he’s such a good kid,” Sturm said during morning skate at Warrior Ice Arena. “He, even when he was scratched, he was working really hard, really hard. Never complains, and he just waited for his opportunity.”
And on Thursday, Khusnutdinov seized that chance — securing Boston’s second win in a row with an overtime tally in the Bruins’ 4-3 victory over Buffalo.
“It’s unbelievable for me. It’s a first game on the first line — first goal of the season,” Khusnutdinov said. “That’s great for the team, great for me.”
Khusnutdinov finished Thursday’s win with 15:20 of ice time to go along with two shots on goal and an 80-percent showing (4-of-5) at the faceoff dot.
Even after Lindholm exited the game in the second period with a lower-body injury, Sturm decided to shift Khusnutdinov over to center, rather than opt for a more established pivot down the middle like Pavel Zacha and Casey Mittelstadt.
Over the 12:46 of 5-on-5 reps that Khusnutdinov and Pastrnak logged together on Thursday, the Bruins outshot Buffalo, 7-6, (in a game where Boston was outshot, 40-22), while also outscoring the Sabres, 1-0.
Even if Lindholm has to miss an extended stretch of time due to his injury, Sturm acknowledged that Khusnutdinov could still play down the middle moving forward.
“Since he’s back, he’s been really good. And even with Elias out, I put him back in the middle, and he was excellent, too,” Sturm said of Khusnutdinov. “So he’s actually — he’s very fun to watch right now, and that’s why I didn’t hesitate to put him out there on the three on three.”
Khusnutdinov’s recent rise up the depth chart has been a welcome sight for fellow Russian Nikita Zadorov, who has helped the younger skater find his footing in Boston while also navigating a tricky language barrier at times.
“I was really happy,” Zadorov said of Khusnutdinov’s goal. “He’s a good player, good kid, too. We’ve been close since he came here. Families are close. He’s coming for trick or treating tomorrow, so it’s gonna be exciting.
“As soon as they put him in the first line, he has been so great up there,” Zadorov added. “He’s keeping the puck, he’s on every puck, really hungry. He’s a good player. So, I don’t think that guy, that kid, is lacking confidence at all.”
It remains to be seen if Khusnutdinov can consistently generate enough plays to remain alongside elite playmakers like Pastrnak, especially while Lindholm is on the mend.
But, based on what he’s seen of him so far, Sturm has not found any reason to curtail Khusnutdinov’s chances to prove himself in a featured role.
After all, he’s done little to prove his coach wrong yet.
“A player has to understand that — is it fun to get scratched? No,” Sturm said. “But a player has to be ready when your opportunity comes up. And he was just — every time he was scratched, he worked.
“He worked really hard in practice, and he just waited for his opportunity and then he took advantage. There’s other players, even in the past or with different organizations — it’s everywhere. There’s players out there — they don’t do that. And that’s the difference, and that’s why I’m so happy with him.”
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