Article: William Nylander's New Contract Is A Preview Of Kirill Kaprizov's Next Payday

[MacGyver]

Pretty much agree with all the above. Kaprizov is used to one thing. Winning. He came to the NHL to win a Cup. His only choice to be in the NHL was to play for the Wild. I'd venture to guess if he had choices then he wouldn't be here now. He's the only nail that sticks up on the Wild so the other teams will hammer him down the most. Part of the reason he didn't take the max term contract of 8 years was his agent wanted the big payday after the five years and it left Kaprizov a way out if things went bad here.

Sure the Wild have a few more Russians in the pipeline but they are not even here yet. They will still be prospects when and if they do get here and no guarantees they can adjust. People assume these guys are Kaprizov clones and are going to be putting up 100 point seasons as soon as they put their skates down on the Xcel Center ice.  Something tells me Kaprizov is not interested in spending more years surrounded by prospects.

I read quite a bit about him before he came here. Even though he had a lot of money in Russia from playing for the KHL he lived very modestly. He shared a small apartment with some other players. He  most likely has all the money he needs right now. So for him the next contract won't be about who can give him the most money but where he can win a Cup. His agent can probably make both happen.  

I agree with the Panarin comparison as well. The other thing Kaprizov and Panrin have in common is they have the same agent Paul Theofanous who has a reputation of being a hard baller and he seems get his players where they want to be and him and them a big payday in the process. 

[mnfaninnc]

12 hours ago, Mateo3xm said:

You keep saying that as if it’s fact. Sure he’s a quiet guy but maybe he’s a quiet guy that wants to be on a winning team and play with high quality nhl players.

That's simply how I see it. I think this is a perfect place for him to be himself. Not everyone likes the bright lights and big city. Yes, NYR has some nice players, but so do other teams in smaller markets.

I do think our talent is yet to arrive under Guerin, and that when it does, he will be plenty excited for the future. Having 2 Calder trophy candidates this year, I'll concede that they are probably longshots from winning it, but might sneak into the top 3, must give him some hope for the future.

To me, I don't see a disinterested player. I see a player who isn't healthy and is just trying to gut it out and help the team. Just watching him, to me, it looked like the left hip/upper leg area had been bothering him all season. He hasn't looked like himself mainly because he wasn't himself. 

He had just started to feel better when Dillon came and crosschecked the other side. Yes, Midsy dropped the gloves with Dillon, but to me this is not over until a skilled Winnipeg player is out for several games do to a nice solid hit, or crosschecks to the hip. But, I tend to hold grudges far longer than other people do.

I will point this out, though: It would make me feel a lot better about my teammates if I knew they had my back! I don't know that he can conclude that at this point. So, if I'm the Wild and I want Kaprizov to stay, I'd make every effort to protect him even against legal hits, and I'd make a concerted effort to drop an opposing star if they laid a finger on mine. That is how loyalty is built!

[mnfaninnc]

Question for MacGyver and Mateo: Do you think we had a better chance of Kaprizov staying if we had resigned Fiala longterm?

[Quebec1648]

1 hour ago, mnfaninnc said:

Question for MacGyver and Mateo: Do you think we had a better chance of Kaprizov staying if we had resigned Fiala longterm?

The Wild had salary cap constraints, so signing Fiala would likely have meant shipping out several other players. We would have kept Fiala, but would likely have holes at multiple positions. We do need a 3rd big name goal scorer, but I doubt we could have remained a playoff contender if we spent all the cap space on Fiala.

Given how Guerin and even Evason trashed Fiala in the media, I don't think he would be overly eager to play here long term.

[Mateo3xm]

9 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

Question for MacGyver and Mateo: Do you think we had a better chance of Kaprizov staying if we had resigned Fiala longterm?

I mean I feel it would help for sure even thou it wasn’t really feasible but it’s more than that. Even with Fiala this team isn’t going to make a deep run in my opinion.

we would still need better bigger defenders and a true #1 center in my opinion.

Most teams that make a deep run have 2-3 kaprizov level players on their team.

[MacGyver]

17 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

Question for MacGyver and Mateo: Do you think we had a better chance of Kaprizov staying if we had resigned Fiala longterm?

The Evason Fiala relationship was more of a mentor student relationship. They had been together from the start of Fiala's career with the Milwaukee Admirals. Evason would praise Fiala when he earned it but he would also trash talk him publicly. When BG came on board that spelled the end of Fiala. The polar opposite of gritty and not a Guerin type player at all. All finesse and no grit. Regardless of how many points he could put up he would never get any respect from Guerin.

I think there was a healthy competition between Kaprizov and Fiala which was also healthy for the Wild. Opposing teams could no longer just put their best D pair on Kaprizov they had to pick their poison. That's no longer the case.

Had we been willing to move Dumba at the time and pull a few other strings we may had been able to keep Fiala but there was never any intention by Guerin of keeping him. No telling where this team would be at now or how it might have effected Kaprizov's view. One may not think it but looking at the stats Kaprizov and Fiala are having similar seasons. Kaprizov in 35 games has 13 goals and 21 assists for 34 points. Fiala in 39 games has 10 goals 27 assists for 37 points. Those 37 points are something the Wild could certainly use right now. Something to watch the rest of the way.  

[mnfaninnc]

Based upon the response up top, how long do you think it will take to train another Fiala type player? Right now, our best chance for that player is Yurov. Fiala struggled his 1st 4 seasons and did not put it all together until right before we traded him.

I think there is a general concession that Fiala drew coverage from Kaprizov, especially when he was hot. I also believe that Zuccarello is not quite the same player as 2 years ago. Obviously, Boldy has not taken on Fiala's role yet. He simply doesn't have that explosion. 

I stick with my story that I don't believe Fiala wanted to stay longterm, but had he, I do think we needed to look elsewhere to find a spot for him. Of course, where we would be is not having Faber on the backend and not having our D prospects ready yet. 

I noticed an article Russo wrote in the Athletic about how the Wild need Ryan O'Rourke to pan out into a player. They need a mean, nasty defender like he is. I will also double down on my critic of his game, that the 1 thing holding him back is strength/weight. He puts on that 20 lbs. of strength, he's ready for the NHL as a 3rd pairing defender. He'll be as serviceable as Soucy and Seeler were. If he's not ready, Seeler's contract ends this season in Philly, and I'd like to bring him home. An $800k ish deal should get the job done. He'd be an upgrade over Merrill who needs to be traded at the deadline. I thought Seeler played well here, but, Soucy outplayed him and Guerin did him a favor by moving him to be able to play in the N. I don't think there are hard feelings here. 

Now, Seeler is the type of player who could play the Prosser role. He's old enough to be a #7, and he'd be a placeholder for Hunt, O'Rourke, Lambos. He's also one of those players who's hard to play against, and I think he'd have absolutely no problem bodyguarding Kaprizov. 

If we were able to pull off a deal sending Merrill out at the TDL, and sending Goligoski to a team for a cup run, I'd wonder if Seeler would be available to bring in? From Philly's perspective, they just obtained Drysdale, so Seeler could be expendable. 

[Pewterschmidt]

1 hour ago, mnfaninnc said:

Fiala struggled his 1st 4 seasons and did not put it all together until right befo

BG expertly teased out the best from Fiala by giving him the short term prove it contracts.  Always amazes me how pro athletes can laser focus themselves in contract years and have career years so they get paid on next contract.   Why the bleep he didn’t do that with the old apathetic core I won’t understand.  Wish we were squeezing more blood from the following turnips: Fred Evason, Foligno, Hartman.  Foligno and Hartman bring energy every night but if they were playing for a contract maybe they’d both be more disciplined.  Foligno getting more points and Hartman taking less penalties. 
 

[MacGyver]

When Fiala got the prove it contract from Guerin he knew full well he was not going to be a Wild after that. That was our chance to give him long term not after the prove it contract which was really a see ya contract. The prove it contract was his last with the Wild and everyone knew it. I'm sure that motivated Fiala to rub it in Guerins face and in that sense mission accomplished because Guerin did not take well to the fans criticizing him for not doing something to keep Fiala. Everyone wanted Dumba out and Fiala in. The time to do that would have been before Fiala's last contract. Now Dumba and Fiala are both gone. 

Guerin  does weird contract extensions at weird times. He did the same thing with Greenway and Merril now Greenway is gone and Merril is as good as out the door. Neither of those contracts were necessary at the time. They better start writing the script for the third installment of the Big Rig  commercial as I'm guessing Maroon will be moved as well. By the way has Guerin broken radio silence yet?