The Bruins have signed pending free agents Marat Khusnutdinov and Michael Callahan to new deals, the team announced Sunday. Khusnutdinov gets a two-year, $1.85MM deal worth $925K per season, while Callahan gets a two-way contract for next year with a $775K cap hit. Callahan was slated to become a Group VI UFA, while Khusnutdinov could have had arbitration rights as an RFA.
While Boston’s thin prospect pool got a much-needed injection with this year’s draft, Khusnutdinov remains one of the organization’s more intriguing young centers. The Russian pivot, 23 in July, was acquired from the Wild in the deadline deal that sent winger Justin Brazeau to Minnesota. The Wild had previously selected him in the second round in 2020, and 2024-25 was his first full season in North America after signing his entry-level contract at the tail end of 2023-24.
Khusnutdinov had an underwhelming start to the season in the North Star State. He was a fine fourth-line piece on a team that relied on checking/defensive acumen from its depth forwards, but offense was hard to come by. He had some of the league’s worst advanced numbers in that regard, and his boxcar stats backed that up with only two goals and seven points in 57 games, averaging 11:14 per game.
The move to Boston seemed to breathe new life into the young center. It’s not as if his offense popped in a big way, but he did show more legitimate upside as a top-nine piece. He saw his deployment increase to 14:47 per game and was shifted to the wing, scoring five points in 18 games along with vastly improved possession impacts. The Moscow native should be penciled into a bottom-six role to begin next season as he looks to rediscover the offensive upside he displayed back home in Russia, scoring 41 points in 63 KHL games for SKA St. Petersburg in 2022-23.
Callahan will return to presumably serve a depth role in AHL Providence if he clears waivers. The 25-year-old Massachusetts native made his NHL debut this past season amid a rash of injuries on the Boston blue line, scoring a goal and logging a minus-five rating in 17 games while averaging 14:09 per night. He was used exclusively as a defensive specialist, unsurprisingly, given his lack of offense at the minor league level. The 6’2″ lefty had nine points and a plus-three rating in 45 games for Providence. He’s been an alternate captain for the P-Bruins the last two seasons and will now continue his run in the Boston organization, which signed him coming out of Providence College after the Coyotes selected him in the fifth round in 2018.