This week, NESN will unveil the winner of the 7th Player Award. It’s an annual award given to the unsung hero on the team, a guy who goes above and beyond expectations, acknowledging hard working players that don’t normally get the same attention of the bigger stars. The award was first given out in 1969.
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Back in February, NESN unveiled their four finalists for this season’s award. There are a lot of worthy options for this season’s finalists, but this year’s finalists are Jonathan Aspirot, Mark Kastelic, Marat Khusnutdinov, and Fraser Minten. All four of them have had great seasons and made the most of opportunities given to them.
Jonathan Aspirot
Aspirot is a great story from the 2025-26 season. The 26-year-old went undrafted, but after a solid junior hockey career in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), he was signed by the Belleville Senators in the American Hockey League (AHL). He eventually signed a two-way contract with the Ottawa Senators, but never played for the team. In 2023-24, he moved to the Calgary Flames organization, and was even awarded the “A” for the Calgary Wranglers last season, but again, never appeared in an NHL game for the franchise.
Last summer, he signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Bruins and had a great training camp, eventually becoming one of the final cuts to be sent down to the Providence Bruins. But he only had to play five games in the AHL before he got the call up to Boston due to a number of injuries. After six seasons of professional hockey, he made his NHL debut on Oct. 28, and never looked back.
Aspirot quickly gained himself a reputation as a solid defenseman who plays a simple and heavy game. He has the best plus/minus of the team with a plus-29. The defenseman has contributed three goals and 13 points in 60 games. He’s also contributed 78 blocks and 84 hits. He earned himself a two-year contract extension earlier in the season and has been a consistent presence on a blue line that has struggled with health and consistency throughout the season.
Aspirot was a guy with no expectations coming into this season and now has 60 games of NHL experience under his belt. He’s one of the best stories of 2025-26 for the Bruins and was a clear pick for a finalist spot for the 7th Player Award.
Mark Kastelic
Kastelic is one of three players that has appeared in every game so far this season (Minten and Sean Kuraly are the other two). In his second season with Boston, he has continued to cement himself as a solid fourth line presence. He’s contributed 10 goals and 20 points, a new career high for the 27-year-old. He’s been good on the penalty kill, even managed a short-handed goal.
His physical play has been an impressive part of his 2025-26 season, registering the second most hits on the team (213), trailing only linemate Tanner Jeannot. He is also currently tied for the third most takeaways on the team with Charlie McAvoy, trailing only Nikita Zadorov and David Pastrnak.
Kastelic is the exact type of unsung player that the award was created to acknowledge. He’s not going to get the most attention on a daily basis, but when looking back on 2025-26 as a whole, he has quietly put together a season much better than what was expected of him. He’s reached the 20-point mark for the first time in his career and has done a lot of the little things right to make important contributions to the team.
Marat Khusnutdinov
Khusnutdinov was an intriguing addition at last season’s trade deadline. He arrived from the Minnesota Wild as part of the Justin Brazeau deal, arriving along with Jakub Lauko and a sixth-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. The 23-year-old was a second-round pick in 2020 by Minnesota from Russia, and made the jump from the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) to the NHL in the 2023-24 season.
He never quite found his footing in Minnesota, registering only 11 points in 73 games. He was actually on his way down to the AHL when he was traded to Boston. The change of scenery started to show some success when he matched his goal total with the Wild (3) in 18 games with the Bruins in the final stretch of the 2024-25 season. His play earned him a qualifying offer this summer and then a two-year contract extension that will run through the 2026-27 season.
It was a slow but steady season for Khusnutdinov, who went from being a healthy scratch in several games in the first month of the season, to spending time on the first line in the second half of the season. The depth forward has registered 15 goals and 33 points in 76 games this season, with some highlights including a four-goal night against the New York Rangers in January and a game winning goal in overtime against the Buffalo Sabres back in October.
It was an uncertainty coming into this season if he’d be able to fully turn things around from his struggles in Minnesota. But this season, Khusnutdinov has truly taken great strides in his young NHL career, which is worth acknowledging and appreciating.
Fraser Minten
Maybe the flashiest name on this list, Fraser Minten has certainly been impressive in his first full NHL season. The 2022 second-round pick was one of the crowning achievements of Don Sweeney’s trade deadline acquisitions last season. Excitement was high for him coming into 2025-26, and he has not disappointed. The 21-year-old has appeared in every game this season so far, registering 17 goals and 34 points through 80 games so far. He really came into his own in the month of January when he had eight goals and 14 points in 14 games and was named the NHL’s rookie of the month.
Like most of the Bruins not named Pavel Zacha or Viktor Arvidsson, he has not been as productive since play resumed following the Olympics. But overall, this has been a very successful season for the rookie and the front office should be very happy with what he has shown and the progression he has made over the course of the season. He has put to bed any questions about whether or not he was ready to make the leap to the NHL.
Over the course of the past couple seasons, it became apparent that the Bruins needed to start pivoting and bring in new, exciting talent. With Minten, Khusnutdinov, and the recent debut of James Hagens, it’s clear that the team is moving in the right direction. There is still more work for Sweeney and the front office before this team is a legitimate, deadly Stanley Cup threat, but Minten’s performance this season is a good indication that this roster is progressing towards that.
Who Will Win the Award?
All four finalists clearly have merit and great reasons to be in the running for the 7th Player Award, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see any one of them walk away with the win. But if I had to make a final guess, I would lean towards Khusnutdinov. He has a great story this season, rising up the depth chart to go from a healthy scratch to getting opportunities to play on the top line. He’s one of the big guys who has stepped up this season, contributing more than expected, which has been a main contributor to this team making it back to the postseason.
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The winner will be announced on during their final matchup of the regular season against the New Jersey Devils. Previous winners of the award include Morgan Geekie, Jeremy Swayman, Cam Neely, Brad Marchand, Ray Bourque, and Pastrnak.
