While we were all hypothesizing that maybe the Minnesota Wild will be entertaining trade offers for star winger Kirill Kaprizov if a contract extension can’t be done in the coming weeks, the recent reports are that there will be no trade.
According to Pierre Lebrun on TSN’s Insider Trading segment on Tuesday, the Wild aren’t engaged in any trade discussions with any teams around Kaprizov. All of their energy and focus is going into keeping the 28-year-old winger and signing him to a new contract as soon as possible.
It might have been obvious, with the Wild having playoff hopes and trading their best player would certainly be a way to kill those, but you never know how badly a team doesn’t want a contract negotiation to tour sour or become a distraction for the rest of the team. They could have just went ahead and moved on with the prime reason being to avoid the headache.
But, thankfully, that’s no happening.
- What does Wild prospect Zeev Buium have to do to be in the conversation to win the Calder Trophy at the end of this season? [Hockey Wilderness]
- On Greg Cronin bringing a wealth of AHL and NHL experience to the Iowa Wild bench. [Pioneer Press]
- Kaprizov’s Wild teammates remain confident that he will re-sign and be a member of this team for the long haul. [The Athletic]
Off the trail…
- Alex Ovechkin is honoring his record-setting season with a new cereal. [ESPN]
- The 10 players under the most pressure heading into the 2025-26 season. [TheScore]
- The New York Rangers have thier new captain and, well, it’s J.T. Miller. [NHL.com]