ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Kirill Kaprizov will remain with the Minnesota Wild, general manager Bill Guerin all but guaranteed on Tuesday.
“My expectations are to get him signed. That’s it,” Guerin said. “I’d like to get it done as soon as I can. Obviously, everybody knows how important Kirill is to the team and to the organization and to the market. He’s a star player. So, yeah, that’s priority No. 1.”
The 28-year-old forward can become an unrestricted free agent after next season, when the five-year, $45 million contract ($9 million average annual value) he signed Sept. 21, 2021, ends.
Kaprizov can sign an eight-year contract with Minnesota as early as July 1. If he signs after July 1, 2026, he can only get a seven-year deal.
On Oct. 1, owner Craig Leipold said: “We plan to re-sign him. I will tell you nobody will offer more money than us, or longer (years). So, all we have to do is prove to him that we want to win."
Guerin doubled down on that sentiment Tuesday.
“Nobody can offer him more than we can. What Craig said [in the preseason] is true. It’s true,” Guerin said. “I’ll just say that I’m very confident we’re going to get a deal done with Kirill. I think he really loves this market and this team. I think he feels that we're going in the right direction. He’s got a good relationship with [coach] John [Hynes]. He’s got a good relationship with me, and it’s just a matter of working through it.”
Kaprizov was having a career year, with 50 points (23 goals, 27 assists) in 34 games, before he sustained a lower-body injury late in December that forced him to miss a month. He then returned for three games before undergoing surgery in late January.
The original timeline for Kaprizov following the surgery was that he would be out a minimum of four weeks, but he didn't return until April 9, when there were four games remaining in the regular season.
“It’s tough because you feel so good early season, all 40 games, how many I play, [34], I don’t know. Feel so good and then it’s surgery coming,” Kaprizov said. “You don’t play like three months. ... It’s just a little bit mental, too, a little bit tough because you’re always without team. You’re alone. You’re home. You’re staying here, no travels, just do your stuff every day in the gym and stuff like this. It’s a tough year but something happened. It is what I can do nothing with this.”
Kaprizov led the team with a plus-19 rating and finished second in goals (25) and third in points (56) despite playing 41 games.
The Wild, who finished fourth in the Central Division (45-30-7), qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the first wild card from the Western Conference. They lost in six games to the Vegas Golden Knights in the first round, when Kaprizov led the team with nine points (five goals, four assists).
Selected by Minnesota in the fifth round (No. 135) in the 2015 NHL Draft, Kaprizov has led the Wild in points in four of his five NHL seasons and won the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year in 2020-21. He has 386 points (15th in the NHL), and 185 goals (tied for eighth) in 319 games since entering the League.
“I love everything here,” he said before adding, in regards to signing an extension with the Wild, it “should be all good.
“It’s always, every time about winning. Always everyone wants to win. Me, too. Same. I like everything here, how I say before.”
Minnesota will get NHL salary cap relief starting next season, when forward Zach Parise and defenseman Ryan Suter will each count $833,333 against the cap the next four seasons as part of their buyouts on July 13, 2021. It’s a significant drop from the combined $14.7 million cap hit this season and the large cap hits the Wild have taken since the buyouts.
Guerin said a new contract for Kaprizov will be priority No. 1 before making free agency additions as well.
“I get excited,” Guerin said. “Not that I don’t feel pressure, I do sometimes, but no, I’m more excited than anything. It’s been a long couple years, just dealing with [the Parise and Suter contracts], and honestly just hearing about it. That’s just like, ‘Oh God, all right, we don’t have to hear about it anymore,’ which is nice.
“Yeah, with that comes higher expectations, but I like high expectations. I want high expectations. I’m not doing this job to kind of sit in the corner or anything. … There’s a lot of people out there that love the Minnesota Wild and I’m trying to deliver something to them. We all are. We’re trying to deliver that to them and it’s a lot but I love it.”
