The Minnesota Wild’s offseason has been filled with disappointments.
The pain started last May when the Vegas Golden Knights bounced them in the first round of the playoffs. It continued when Craig Leipold’s Christmas promise turned into a bad Christmas story. Some may have felt better when Marco Rossi signed a contract extension to return to the team, but what Wild fans really want is Kirill Kaprizov to sign a new contract of his own.
Kaprizov’s status entering the final year of his contract is enough to give Wild fans PTSD. Marian Gaborik left Minnesota in 2009, sealing the fate of former GM Doug Risebrough and sentencing the franchise to a few years of irrelevancy until they signed Zach Parise and Ryan Suter in 2012.
Negotiations are still ongoing, but it may not be about the bank-breaking deal the Russian star could sign in the near future. Instead, it could be about Kaprizov’s desire to win that could make a potential delay worth it if he signs in the weeks leading up to the season.
Leipold is getting out in front of the anxiety by saying that no team will outbid the Wild for Kaprizov’s services. He recently doubled down by declaring that Kaprizov’s contract is likely to be the biggest in franchise history. It could end up somewhere in the neighborhood of $16 million.
Most people reading this would wonder where they should sign if offered this type of money. But Kaprizov wants to win and even said it during a May press conference where the main headline was that he loves “everything” about Minnesota. If that comment is true, Kaprizov would be wise to take a step back and wonder if he really can win a Stanley Cup in Minnesota.
The Wild haven’t been out of the first round of the playoffs since 2015. They’ve blown a 2-1 lead in each of the past three playoff series. Many are bullish on Minnesota’s chances thanks to their young core, headlined by Kaprizov and Matt Boldy and complemented by Liam Ohgren, Zeev Buium, and Jesper Wallstedt.
But you have to ask yourself, did the Wild get better?
General manager Bill Guerin has plenty of excuses at his disposal. The free agent market evaporated with teams keeping their pending UFAs, and the ones that did required a bidding war where Guerin chose not to participate. He also couldn’t get another team to overpay for Rossi, leading him to sign him to a bridge deal and keep the avenue for a trade open down the road.
None of these was the “wrong” move. But where Guerin chose to pivot could have Kaprizov and his camp second-guessing Guerin’s offseason approach.
The Wild dismissed the free agent wing market and chose to buy low on Vladimir Tarasenko. A ghost that haunted Minnesota during its failed playoff runs in the late 2010s, Tarasenko notched over 20 goals just twice in the past eight seasons. However, last year’s campaign with the Detroit Red Wings may have been one of the worst. His 80 games played were the most since the 2017-18 season, but he only managed 11 goals and 33 points.
Minnesota is also dealing with its usual injury issues. Jonas Brodin will miss the start of the season with a lower-body injury, and nobody seems to know when he’ll return. Jared Spurgeon is a good bet to miss 15 to 20 games annually as he climbs into his late 30s. Even Kaprizov’s friend Mats Zuccarello turned 38 on September 1, raising the question of how old is too old?
This puts the spotlight on the Wild’s prospects. Buium is the most anticipated rookie since Brock Faber laced up the skates a few years ago, and Wild fans are waiting for Boldy to go from a very good player to an elite one. But a fan base that watched Charlie Coyle, Nino Niederreiter, and Jason Zucker never reach their potential knows that prospects don’t always pan out.
Can Ohgren dispatch Marcus Johansson for a third-line role? Will David Jiricek break out his seventh defenseman cocoon and validate the massive price Guerin paid to acquire him last season? Can Wallstedt recover from his year from hell? Can Danila Yurov be closer to Kirill Kaprizov than Marat Khusnutdinov in his first season transitioning from the KHL?
If the answer is no to some of these questions, it could force Guerin to get aggressive at the trade deadline and hope that a Mikko Rantanen-level player is available. But that doesn’t always happen, and if Rossi doesn’t turn into Guerin’s best trade chip, he may not be able to reel in the big fish that can turn the Wild from a perennial wild card team to a Stanley Cup contender.
Kaprizov has already spent five years waiting for the Wild to make the big move, and if they can’t do it in Year 6, hitting the free agent market at age 29 might sound more appealing. But he could also feel good where the Wild are at and sign a medium-term deal to see how things shake out, allowing him to maximize his value and take a little less money to allocate it to other areas of need.
We won’t know until Kaprizov’s next deal is finalized. But if he’s truly assessing the situation before signing on the dotted line, it will be worth the wait for Wild fans.