Earlier this offseason, the Wild made headlines when it was reported that they were willing to offer $16MM per season to pending unrestricted free agent winger Kirill Kaprizov. Meanwhile, the winger himself made headlines when that offer (with an eight-year term) was rejected. Understandably, there has been plenty of speculation about what Kaprizov’s future with the Wild might be.
However, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reported in a TSN Early Trading segment that while teams are calling Minnesota GM Bill Guerin to try to assess if the 28-year-old might be available, they are being told that offers are not being entertained at this time. To that end, Michael Russo of The Athletic reported today on the DFO Rundown (video link) that as of yet, Kaprizov’s camp hasn’t been approached for a list of teams he would accept a trade to; he has a full no-move clause and can veto any deal.
Despite the setback of having that record-breaking offer declined, the Wild are still operating with the internal belief that Kaprizov wants to remain in Minnesota. It might be a case of his agent Paul Theofanous hoping to get a bit more money on the AAV, the year-to-year structure (salary and signing bonus money), or potentially a preference to take a shorter-term contract as some players are starting to want to do. However, LeBrun also characterized the discussions between the two sides as “not cordial” so at first glance, an agreement shouldn’t be expected in the near future.
When healthy, Kaprizov is among the NHL’s elite talents and has 386 points in 319 career regular season games after coming to North America for his age-23 year. He looked to be well on his way to setting new personal benchmarks last season but injuries ultimately limited him to just 41 games where he still managed 25 goals and 31 assists to finish third on the team in scoring. Meanwhile, despite the injuries, Kaprizov was quite productive in the playoffs, notching five goals and four assists in their first-round loss to Vegas.
Considering the Wild have already gone higher than what some teams might be inclined to offer Kaprizov if he made it to free agency next summer, it will be interesting to see what their next move may wind up being. Just don’t expect that move to be the initiation of trade discussions, an option that it appears they’re not ready to think about considering just yet.