Article: The Price For Kirill Kaprizov Doesn't Matter

[Tony Abbott]

View full article

[Citizen Strife]

Minnesota spent decades trying to get a player of his caliber.  They may not get another for another two decades.  Worth the risk.  Build the team around the players you have, not the ones you "hope" may come here instead.

[Burnt Toast]

What I’ve always liked most about KK is that he elevates players around him. He’s the kind of superstar player that a team can be built around. I hope the Wild can build on last year’s start and add a nice piece at the Trade Deadline. This is an exciting time. 

[Patrick]

A decent front office could have had all of that at 13 or 14 million a year. But BG and ownership ran their mouths.  

I hope he stays healthy...

[Sam]

1 hour ago, Patrick said:

A decent front office could have had all of that at 13 or 14 million a year. But BG and ownership ran their mouths.  

I hope he stays healthy...

With that long of a contract though? With “capflation” or whatever it’s called?

[Patrick]

43 minutes ago, Sam said:

With that long of a contract though? With “capflation” or whatever it’s called?

With his play style and age 5 years would have been ideal.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

6 hours ago, Patrick said:

A decent front office could have had all of that at 13 or 14 million a year. But BG and ownership ran their mouths.  

I hope he stays healthy...

$13M was never in the cards with this agent, but if the Wild started at $14M, and initially tried anchoring on that number, it's possible they may have been able to sign him in the $15M range.

There wasn't any chance that Kaprizov was signing below $14M due to the length of the deal and the increase in salary cap. He may not be better than Draisaitl, but you cannot easily replace Kaprizov either and the Wild now have the cap space to retain a top 10 player--the agent knew they needed him more than Kaprizov needed to accept an offer below $14M.

He would likely have been making $15M or more no matter who he signed with, but the Wild letting the agent push it to $17M is somewhat unfortunate because it is $1M or $2M less available for adding other pieces around him.

Guerin may need to sign Gus to a more team friendly deal now. The Wild do have some really good deals, like Boldy's deal, that will help them compete as long as Kaprizov and Boldy can both stay healthy.

[Pablo]

When you pay him, others will want to play with him. BG just made St. Paul a destination for several guys to now want to play their best years at. We have 2 goalie's, a stacked blue line thats getting younger, developing depth on the 3rd line.  Not much is missing if Tarasenko and Yurof have a great season. 
We got our guy, now go get the cup. 

Edited Wednesday at 08:44 AM by Pablo

[Fezig]

Now it's time for the Wild to sign a serious "Goon" to make sure that investment is protected.

[Citizen Strife]

1 hour ago, Fezig said:

Now it's time for the Wild to sign a serious "Goon" to make sure that investment is protected.

Maybe Logan Stanley to get everything full circle?

[Imyourhuckleberry]

Wild are just over 1 week away from game #1, just 1 preseason game left.

Zuccarello is going to miss several weeks. Yurov is very likely to be on the Minnesota roster, playing wing and center. Ohgren will likely play a key role at wing on line 2 or 3.

Buium on PP1 with Tarasenko, Kaprizov, Boldy, and JEE. Should be a fun season ahead. Hopefully Jiricek can limit his mistakes and deliver a better season than Merrill has lately.  Jiricek likely to be on PP2 as well.

Hopefully Wild can get healthy and stay relatively healthy this season, then make some noise in the playoffs.

[M_Nels]

6 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

The Wild do have some really good deals, like Boldy's deal, that will help them compete as long as Kaprizov and Boldy can both stay healthy.

GMBG gets a ton of hate on this site but his Boldy and Ek deals were masterclass. Boldy's contract is already looking like a bargain, couple years from now it'll look like a straight steal.

Trenin, Moose and Hartman's contracts always seemed a little head scratching but as shown by young'uns in the preseason there's a significant drop off from those 3 in the lineup vs out. 

[B1GKappa97]

15 hours ago, Citizen Strife said:

Minnesota spent decades trying to get a player of his caliber.  They may not get another for another two decades.  Worth the risk.  Build the team around the players you have, not the ones you "hope" may come here instead.

Personally I am excited to see what we do during this all-in push.

The biggest mistake Fletcher probably made that set the tone for a disappointing end to that era was trading for Jason Pominville, who never scored more than 60 points for us, so hopefully Guerin has a better move up his sleeve than that one and we can have more success than those teams did.

[B1GKappa97]

16 minutes ago, M_Nels said:

GMBG gets a ton of hate on this site but his Boldy and Ek deals were masterclass. Boldy's contract is already looking like a bargain, couple years from now it'll look like a straight steal.

Trenin, Moose and Hartman's contracts always seemed a little head scratching but as shown by young'uns in the preseason there's a significant drop off from those 3 in the lineup vs out. 

Rossi's is honestly pretty epic too.

$5M for a top-6 60-pt center, and he's still an RFA at the end of it? 

That gives the team a ton of flexibility depending on how these next 3 seasons go and makes him a far more attractive trade chip to other teams.

[B1GKappa97]

13 hours ago, Patrick said:

A decent front office could have had all of that at 13 or 14 million a year. But BG and ownership ran their mouths.  

I hope he stays healthy...

It was Craig doing all the talking. BG never said anything other than that they wanted to keep him. Which duh. 

Agents and teams knew what the salary cap is going to be for the next 2 years. That obviously played an influence in Kaprizov having more negotiating power than players like Draisaitl or Ranntanen had at the time they signed their deals.

In the scheme of things, is a $4M difference really worth losing Kaprizov to you? So you can add another Trenin? Come on dude. Be real.

[Pewterschmidt]

What was the name of the Swedish center men that we drafted second round and then traded to Buffalo? Was it Jonas Stevens?

[hydguy75]

2 hours ago, Fezig said:

Now it's time for the Wild to sign a serious "Goon" to make sure that investment is protected.

That is exactly what I am thinking too.  Wild didn't add much size or significant skill for this season, so last years' teams already know to shut down the Wild by shutting down KK.  If that's via more physical play directed at KK, we will need that threat of an enforcer, an insurance policy.  

[Patrick]

7 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

$13M was never in the cards with this agent, but if the Wild started at $14M, and initially tried anchoring on that number, it's possible they may have been able to sign him in the $15M range.

There wasn't any chance that Kaprizov was signing below $14M due to the length of the deal and the increase in salary cap. 

You don't know this.  There was no reason to sign him this early at this amount. 

They should have waited for McDavid. 

They shouldn't have offered 8 years.

They should have waited to see if he can stay healthy.

They shouldn't have opened with "nobody is going to pay more"

When you sign the largest contract in NHL history for a wing, with injury history, who has never been considered a top 5 player.  You got played.

 

[M_Nels]

2 minutes ago, hydguy75 said:

That is exactly what I am thinking too.  Wild didn't add much size or significant skill for this season, so last years' teams already know to shut down the Wild by shutting down KK.  If that's via more physical play directed at KK, we will need that threat of an enforcer, an insurance policy.  

Moose, Trenin? Lesser extent Hartman, Middleton and Jiricek?

People complain about their contracts and blocking young guys but you're suggesting adding another 4th line plug??

[Patrick]

23 minutes ago, B1GKappa97 said:

It was Craig doing all the talking. BG never said anything other than that they wanted to keep him. Which duh. 

Agents and teams knew what the salary cap is going to be for the next 2 years. That obviously played an influence in Kaprizov having more negotiating power than players like Draisaitl or Ranntanen had at the time they signed their deals.

In the scheme of things, is a $4M difference really worth losing Kaprizov to you? So you can add another Trenin? Come on dude. Be real.

Rantanen signed 3 months ago. Theu knew the cap situation.

It's not signing another Trenon. It's the difference between signing a guy who can play first line and score 35 and signing a guy who plays 2rd line and scores 25. 

It's being able to retain Fiala v having to trade him.

Largest overpay in NHL history.  Go read national forums for an unbiased take. The front office got fleeced.

[B1GKappa97]

18 minutes ago, Patrick said:

Rantanen signed 3 months ago. Theu knew the cap situation.

It's not signing another Trenon. It's the difference between signing a guy who can play first line and score 35 and signing a guy who plays 2rd line and scores 25. 

It's being able to retain Fiala v having to trade him.

Largest overpay in NHL history.  Go read national forums for an unbiased take. The front office got fleeced.

Yes. So they knew that Dallas only had $13M in space, and he took $12M of that. The Wild had $39M in space, Kaprizov only took $17M of that. 

lol Kevin Fiala is making $7.1M.. they can literally afford 3 Fialas even after signing Kap to this contract next season. 

If we got fleeced, are you saying you'd rather that we didn't sign him at all? You think that was a solid alternative for the franchise to take? Oh no, they 'overpaid' a superstar by $3M!! How will they ever recover?! 

Edited Wednesday at 01:38 PM by B1GKappa97

[mnfaninnc]

14 hours ago, Patrick said:

A decent front office could have had all of that at 13 or 14 million a year. But BG and ownership ran their mouths. 

I am severely doubting this statement is true based upon the track record of Kaprizov's agent. Just as Rossi had little to no leverage in his situation, Guerin had little to none in Kaprizov's negotiation. His only duty was to get the amount right and spell his name correctly on the contract. 

Next up, Goose. This negotiation will favor Guerin. I expect a team friendly deal. The good news to all of this is that we can cover the 1st few years of the Kaprizov contract with low budget ELCs coming in this year. Those who need new contracts, Jiricek, Lambos and later OgZ will not get much of a raise, nor have they deserved one. Now is when we need to take advantage of these value players. 

[Pewterschmidt]

36 minutes ago, hydguy75 said:

That is exactly what I am thinking too.  Wild didn't add much size or significant skill for this season, so last years' teams already know to shut down the Wild by shutting down KK.  If that's via more physical play directed at KK, we will need that threat of an enforcer, an insurance policy.  

Isn't that what Foligno, Trenin and Midsy are on the payroll to do.  Please not another: Maroon/Reeves/Brazeau/DLo waste of space

[mnfaninnc]

47 minutes ago, Pewterschmidt said:

What was the name of the Swedish center men that we drafted second round and then traded to Buffalo? Was it Jonas Stevens?

Are you talking way back in the Fletcher era? Johan Larsson.

[Pewterschmidt]

1 minute ago, mnfaninnc said:

Are you talking way back in the Fletcher era? Johan Larsson.

Thank you.  Yes.  A defense first "responsible 200 ft. player" which is code for zero offense.

Pewter's Prospect Comp's:

Ogz = playoff Trenin.  Lot's of energy.  lot's of chasing.  outstretched stick attempting to cut off lanes.  very low hockey IQ.  

Yurov = Johan Larsson.  At 21 yo after KHL experience i expected more.  very tepid play.  Have yet to see the kid make a hockey play in 5 games.  Breakout passes, or shooting a one timer is not a hockey play.  hockey play = creating offense

Haight = Marco 2.0?  Of the three, this is the kid with the best chance to help the team the most this season.  kid needs to be prepared to play bottom six minutes (4C) so don't expect much help from your wingers but I'm betting on this kid for this season.