It was noted here at season’s end that if Wild wing Kirill Kaprizov doesn’t want to stay in Minnesota, there is nothing the team can do to keep him here.
We got the first substantial whiff of that on Wednesday, and it didn’t smell good.
According to reporter Frank Seravalli, an NHL insider who contributes to Bleacher Report, Kaprizov has turned down an eight-year contract extension, the league maximum, worth $16 million a year.
Quick summary: Kaprizov and his agent, Paul Theofanous — who is in the Twin Cities this week — just turned down the most lucrative deal in NHL history. So, the Wild didn’t lowball their star left wing, and he didn’t blink.
Yeah, it’s the opening salvo, and it’s assumed general Bill Guerin and team owner Craig Leipold have more in the bank vault they can Hoover into Kaprizov’s bank account, but it’s not a good start for Minnesota’s NHL team. Does Kaprizov — as he has said many times — really want to be here?
Is this a typical negotiation, when you’re immediately offered the biggest contract in your sport’s history and turn it down?
Let’s be honest, as a competitive entity, the Wild have not built a case that they can get Kaprizov’s name on the Stanley Cup. This is important. After finally breaking free from salary cap jail this summer, the team made one real move after free agency opened — trading for forward Vladimir Tarasenko, a Russian compatriot for Kaprizov in the locker room, but unlikely to be the difference for a team that hasn’t won a playoff series since 2015.
Kaprizov spent much of his summer in Russia hiking with friends, miles from cell service, decompressing from a trying season that went from being an early Hart Trophy candidate to missing 41 games with a lower body injury. One imagines him finally getting online at some state forestry compound and finding out that Tarasenko — 11 goals and 33 points in 80 games for Detroit last season — was Guerin’s big addition.
“Ты шутишь, что ли?”
The last thing the Wild wanted was for this to become a public negotiation, and Guerin and Leipold maintained relative radio silence Wednesday. At some point soon, that won’t be possible, and as a veteran of the Marian Gaborik Conflict of 2008, well, just know that it will get ugly if it moves into the regular season.
When the Wild went to Grand Forks, N.D., to train for the 2008-09 season, Gaborik’s agent, Ron Salcer, said his client wanted an extension with the Wild, telling reporters at at Ralph Engelstad Arena, “Marian’s made it clear that’s what he wants me to pursue. Our intentions are sincere.”
Were they?
Gaborik, most of you may remember, was the Wild’s best player before Kaprizov and signed with the New York Rangers as soon as he could, a five-year deal worth $7.5 million a year. That was less than the Wild offered him.
“I knew the deal he signed in New York and knew the deal he could have signed to stay in Minnesota — and I know he took a pay cut to be in New York,” Risebrough told the Pioneer Press in 2021.
At some point, Risebrough had to decide whether to trade Gaborik to at least get something back if he left but never really had a chance. Gaborik’s notoriously finicky groin limited him to 17 regular-season games, and he was out of action at the trade deadline.
Now, with Theofanous in town, this space could soon be filled with different news. But if it isn’t, and the Kaprizov contract extension bleeds into the regular season, it will indicate that the Wild’s leading scorer since he arrived in 2020-21 — 185 goals and 366 points in 319 games — is interested in seeing what he can get from a team he deems closer to winning a Cup or will offer him a richer social life, or warmer weather and lower taxes.
In a sport with a salary cap, it’s difficult to believe Kaprizov will get more than the biggest NHL contract in history from any team but the Wild, especially not one paying all the other good players he would be joining — and that seems to indicate he’s willing to accept less somewhere else.
After free agency opened on July 1, Guerin spoke about improving his 2025-26 team through in-season trades. If he can’t lasso Kaprizov soon — and is it really up to him? — he must try trading Kaprizov before his young superstar officially becomes an unrestricted free agent.
The Wild’s best outcome is a long-term deal with Kaprizov. If that doesn’t happen before the trade deadline, Guerin will be forced to avoid the worst-case scenario of just letting the Wild’s best player walk away.
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