Kaprizov reportedly denied entry to U.S. twice

The Minnesota Wild might have the right to be concerned, now. After recent rumors that their star player Kirill Kaprizov has fled to the United States after the recent arrest of Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Ivan Fedotov and him being send to do military service near the Arctic Circle, were eventually proven to be false, some bone-chilling (and true) news has been reported.

According to The Athletic’s Michael Russo, Kaprizov has tried to come back to North American twice and has been rejected entry both times. One route was through Dubai, but Russo speculates that he was denied entry because of a lack of work visa despite signing his five-year deal last summer. After Dubai, Kaprizov attempted a route through some Caribbean islands, but again, was rejected entrance into the United States.

This has caused some anxiety within the organization.

“It’s scary. It’s scary for all of us,” head coach Dean Evason said via The Athletic. “It’s a scary situation in our world. To see somebody as close as we know Kirill, yeah, it’s a scary situation. And we hope that it all gets sorted out correctly.”

And even before the reports of the denied entries, GM Bill Guerin spoke about Kaprizov being in Russia during this troubling time, in reference to the prior false reports of the player fleeing the country.

“We’re trying to find out as much as we can, but we’re not worried too much about it,” Guerin said. “I’ve talked to (Kaprizov’s agent) Paul (Theofanous). We’re not going to push the panic button or anything like that. We’re just trying to gather information right now and find out if this is even credible.”

Now is the time to not go forward with any significant speculation, but this is just another problem that the Wild will need to solve this summer, and we are all hopeful that this gets sorted soon.