Bill Guerin anticipates Marat Khusnutdinov will start at center for Wild
It's only a matter of time before Marat Khusnutdinov arrives in the United States and as soon as he does he could be centering a line for the Minnesota Wild.
“I think Marat is the type of player that can help us right now,” Wild general manager Bill Guerin said Thursday, 24 hours after Minnesota signed the 2020 second-round pick to an entry-level contract.
“All the assets that he has — he’s a solid two-way player, he’s got speed, he’s tenacious — those are the things we’re looking for. We want to make sure we put him in a situation that he can succeed in and timing of when he gets into the lineup is going to be important, but he will eventually get in the lineup.”\
Guerin says he recalls the day the Wild drafted Khusnutdinov and how Wild director of amateur scouting Judd Brackett said he was "the fastest kid in the draft."
Bracket told Wild.com that Khusnutdinov can play both wings and center, calling him a "bit of a Swiss army knife" on the ice. But Guerin sees him fitting in immediately as a center.
"Everything that I see here and read that he has that ability to play center, effective in all three zones," Guerin said. "That's the plan right now. We'll see how this whole thing shakes out and where he's going to fit the best and have the most success and help us the most."
Indications from Michael Russo of The Athletic are that Khusnutdinov's visa paperwork will completed soon and he could be in Minnesota before the NHL's trade deadline on March 8.
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