The Minnesota Wild have a franchise participant in ahead Kirill Kaprizov. The 27-year-old Russian has tallied 330 factors in components of simply 4 seasons.
For reference, Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby and Washington’s Alexander Ovechkin put up 397 and 420 factors, respectively, after the identical period of time.
Kaprizov received the Calder Trophy in 2021 because the league’s prime rookie, signing a five-year, $45M contract extension in consequence. With two years remaining on that deal, Minnesota’s proprietor is making it a prime precedence to make him a career-long member of the staff.
“He will be the main focus of what we will do,” proprietor Craig Leipold instructed reporters Tuesday. “We plan to re-sign him.”
Offers of that significance with a participant of that magnitude aren’t essentially as straightforward as Leipold makes it sound. If an settlement cannot be reached by the point Kaprizov reaches free company in 2026, there may be certain to be a protracted line of potential suitors seeking to purchase his signature.
However that does not appear to section Leipold one bit. He is assured Minnesota may have one of the best provide on the desk.
“I’ll let you know no person will provide more cash than us, or longer [years],” he continued. “So all we have now to do is show to him that we need to win.”
That is the place the laborious half could consider. Minnesota missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the primary time since 2018-19 final season. It additionally hasn’t received a playoff collection since 2014-15, lengthy earlier than Kaprizov’s arrival.
Its younger star will not be all the reply to discovering postseason success, however he is definitely a good portion of it.
“We’ll get a perennial playoff staff, but it surely does begin with Kirill,” Leipold confidently declared.
Locking him up for the foreseeable future and utilizing these subsequent two seasons to show profitable is feasible could also be sufficient to lure a supporting solid to spice up Kaprizov and the Wild to new heights.
