Minnesota Wild News

Home

Quizzes

Newsletter

Marat Khusnutdinov, former member of the Minnesota Wild (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)

Wild 2024-25 Report Cards: Devin Shore & Marat Khusnutdinov

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers
By Mariah E. Stark | Last updated May 28, 2025 8:55 AM ET

As the offseason continues and the NHL postseason winds down to the final rounds, it’s time for another Minnesota Wild report card, this one will be shared once again. These two played enough regular season games to have their reports, but one was traded and the other didn’t play in the postseason, so they don’t have enough stats as a whole to make their own individual reports.

The two players who need their grades are Devin Shore and Marat Khusnutdinov. Shore was with the team off and on all season due to injuries, while Khusnutdinov had a permanent spot until he was traded alongside Jakub Lauko and a sixth-round draft pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft to the Boston Bruins for Justin Brazeau. In this article, we’ll look at their regular season performances and give them a grade on that, since neither played in the postseason for the Wild.

Shore Fills In

He may not have made his way up to the first line, but Shore did just fine in his spot, mainly on the fourth line with a rotating cast of players throughout the season. He was brought up from the Iowa Wild in the American Hockey League after the Wild had more injuries than they were ready for. However, Shore jumped into the lineup and made it hard to pull him back out when the time came.

He spent 55 games with the Wild and scored one goal plus four assists for five points. Not huge numbers, but it’s important to remember he played on the fourth line and was meant to be more of a physical presence than a scoring one. He did have 41 shots on goal in those games and won 49.5 percent of the faceoffs he took.

While he was quieter on the offensive side, he was noticeable on the defensive side. He threw 76 hits plus 37 blocked shots, and every forward should aim to have that many blocked shots in a season. He also had 14 giveaways, which could be improved, but also seven takeaways.

Khusnutdinov Shows Minimal Promise

Everyone was pretty excited when Khustnutdinov was brought into the lineup, but through 57 games, he made a small impact. He had short bursts of speed and promise, but it wasn’t quite consistent enough for the Wild, and they made the decision to trade him at this past season’s trade deadline.

Before he was traded, he scored two goals and tallied five assists for seven points, just a couple of points more than Shore, but he had fewer shots on goal with 30. Like Shore, Khusnutdinov did spend quite a bit of time on the fourth line, but he bounced around and couldn’t quite find a rhythm. He’s a strong player but lacked consistency in his time with the Wild.

Defensively, he was not as physical as Shore, with only 37 hits, but he did have 38 blocked shots. The biggest area of concern was his 30 giveaways, and although many of the Wild’s top players had more giveaways, they had more points, so they made up for it; Khusnutdinov did not. He also only had three takeaways, which shows definite room for improvement.

Shore & Khusnutdinov Final Grades

While they didn’t spend any time in the postseason for the Wild, they did play enough to earn a grade for the season. Looking at Shore’s performance, he has room to improve his play, but he did what is expected of fourth liners, so his grade is a C. He filled in for the injured players, and at times, it was hard to send him down because he made an impact and fit in well. It’ll be interesting to see where he fits next season.

Khusnutdinov was expected to do more, but he was also only in the lineup for part of the season and wasn’t given a full season to show his potential. Just like Shore, he has a lot of room to improve, but he did show a lot of promise in a small amount of time. He earned a C-, a little lower than Shore because he didn’t make as much of an impact, but he could’ve been worse. It’ll be fun to see what both of these players do next season and if they are able to contribute to their respective teams more than this past season.