Minnesota Wild: Kirill Kaprizov saga ends; forward agrees to five-year, $45 million deal

Months of drama concerning the contract status of Minnesota Wild superstar Kirill Kaprizov came to an end on Tuesday afternoon.

News broke after  5 p.m.. central standard time that Kaprizov, a restricted free agent, had reached agreement with the Minnesota Wild.

The reigning Calder Trophy winner is expected to be in Minnesota on Wednesday, according to Michael Russo of The Athletic. Russo added that there is a possibility he might do an in-person media conference, depending on his vaccination status.

Wild general manager Bill Guerin is expected to be available on Wednesday as well which is designated as the team’s media day on the eve of the start of training camp.

The Wild’s media release stated that Kaprizov would not be available to participate for the beginning of training camp as he will have to quarantine before he is allowed to be on the ice. But the forward who had 27 goals and 51 points for the Wild last year, will be with the team for the regular season opener on Oct. 15 at Anaheim.

He did post a reaction to the agreement on his Instagram account. 

According to NHL Stats, Kaprizov became one of of four rookies since 1992-93 to lead a team in scoring during the regular season and qualify for the playoffs: Auston Matthews (2016-17), Filip Forsberg (2014-15) and Trent Hunter (2003-04).

Kaprizov led rookies in goals, even-strength goals (19), power-play goals (8) and shots on goal (157),

That led to speculation on what Kaprizov could do for an encore. The question then turned to if-and-when he would return to the Wild.

The buzz that something was in the works came Tuesday afternoon when Russo tweeted that it was looking like the two sides were hammering out the details on the contract and close to reaching an agreement.

It didn’t look like that for months after Kaprizov returned to Russia for the offseason after the Wild were eliminated by the Vegas Golden Knights in seven games of a first-round playoff game. The stalemate grew over the past six months and led to a rumor of Kaprizov being offered a contract to play in the KHL.

That never came to be but with no agreement in place at end of last week, Wild general manager Bill Guerin said the team was moving forward with the group that was in camp. The major sticking point was reportedly over the length of the contract with Kaprizov’s side hoping for fewer years.

“Honestly I have nothing new to tell you,” Guerin said of the contract negotiations on Sunday. “ I would tell you but really don’t have anything new.”

Two days later Kaprizov had a new contract. With that one of the biggest questions for the Wild heading into training camp was answered as well.