The Minnesota Wild have a franchise player in forward Kirill Kaprizov. The 27-year-old Russian has tallied 330 points in parts of just four seasons.
For reference, Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby and Washington’s Alexander Ovechkin put up 397 and 420 points, respectively, after the same amount of time.
Kaprizov won the Calder Trophy in 2021 as the league’s top rookie, signing a five-year, $45M contract extension as a result. With two years remaining on that deal, Minnesota’s owner is making it a top priority to make him a career-long member of the team.
“He’s going to be the focus of what we’re going to do,” owner Craig Leipold told reporters Tuesday. “We plan to re-sign him.”
Deals of that importance with a player of that magnitude aren’t necessarily as easy as Leipold makes it sound. If an agreement can’t be reached by the time Kaprizov reaches free agency in 2026, there is sure to be a long line of potential suitors looking to acquire his signature.
But that doesn’t seem to phase Leipold one bit. He’s confident Minnesota will have the best offer on the table.
“I will tell you nobody will offer more money than us, or longer [years],” he continued. “So all we have to do is prove to him that we want to win.”
That’s where the hard part may factor in. Minnesota missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2018-19 last season. It also hasn’t won a playoff series since 2014-15, long before Kaprizov’s arrival.
Its young star may not be the entire answer to finding postseason success, but he’s certainly a significant portion of it.
“We’re going to get a perennial playoff team, but it does start with Kirill,” Leipold confidently declared.
Locking him up for the foreseeable future and using these next two seasons to prove winning is possible may be enough to lure a supporting cast to boost Kaprizov and the Wild to new heights.