Boston Bruins GM Don Sweeney fleeced one team at the trade deadline

It was a strange 2025 trade deadline for the Boston Bruins and GM Don Sweeney. Buyers generally at the deadline, this season he needed to go through a long overdue retool. In doing so, he traded a handful of players with Brad Marchand headlining the list in the final hour.

Sweeney also moved Charlie Coyle and Brandon Carlo on deadline day, while Trent Frederic and Max Jones were moved three days before the deadline to the Edmonton Oilers. There was one move that Boston’s GM made the night before the deadline that at the time appeared to be a minor movement of players, but that may not be the case when all is said and done.

Bruins GM Don Sweeney fleeced the Minnesota Wild in Justin Brazeau trade

A short time after the Bruins lost, 3-2, in stunning fashion to the Carolina Hurricanes last Thursday night, Sweeney traded bottom-six forward Justin Brazeau to the Minnesota Wild for Jakub Lauko and Marat Khusnutinov. It was exciting for some Black and Gold fans to get Lauko back, but Khusnutdinov was an unknown. He has quickly become known with Boston fans.

Is he going to be anything more than a bottom-six forward? No, he’s not, but he has added speed to the lineup, he sees the ice well and works hard in all three zones. His speed was evident against the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night in a 6-3 Boston loss when he took a pass in the neutral zone and blew by the Ottawa defense to beat Linus Ullmark with a perfect wrist shot.

That was not only his first goal as a Bruin, but his first point. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t been noticeable in the other two games he played with Boston, but he was a second-round pick of Minnesota in the 2020 Entry Draft and we all know how well the Bruins can find second round picks, whether or not they make the picks themselves.

Lauko is another bottom-six player that the Bruins know well and he is a free agent following the season. He returns less than a year after being dealt to the Wild by Sweeney and if he got him back, you have to think that he’s in their plans beyond this season.

As for Brazeau, he had fallen out of interim Bruins coach Joe Sacco’s lineup and it was not a surprise that he was moved. However, in his first four games in Minnesota, he has yet to find the scoresheet and is averaging just 6:38 a night, which is far lower than the 12:58 he was averaging in Boston.

When the dust settles on the 2024-25 campaign, Khusnutdinov and Lauko are both restricted free agents and will get an offer from the Bruins, but Khusnutdinov is someone who provides what Boston is missing in the lineup, speed, and if they end up keeping him long-term and he adds what it looks like he can, getting him for Brazeau is a fleece job and a half by Sweeney.