By Tony Abbott -
If you've ever exclaimed, "Pay that man his money!" after watching Kirill Kaprizov score a brilliant goal, then good news: You got your wish.
After turning down a would-be record-breaking contract of eight years and $128 million earlier this month, Kaprizov finally signed his extension with the Minnesota Wild. His deal goes from record-breaking to record-shattering, an eight-year, $136 million pact that will carry a $17 million AAV.
No one can blame you for calling that insane. The Wild are paying him $3 million more than Leon Draisaitl, the current highest-paid player in the NHL, is making. It will probably be even more than Connor McDavid will make whenever he signs his next deal.
There are several compelling reasons why Minnesota shouldn't have offered that contract to Kaprizov. $17 million is a ton of money, and it's going to be a lot even as the salary cap continues to rise. Kaprizov's extension kicks in at age 29, which means that it will take him through his age-36 season. There's also the fact that Kaprizov has missed 63 games in the last three years, including 41 last season. It's a significant risk.
However, none of those reasons stack up compared to the best reason to keep him:
The Wild aren't anything without Kaprizov.
It's not to say that the Wild don't have good, compelling players: Matt Boldy, Brock Faber, Marco Rossi, and Joel Eriksson Ek are a few. But Kaprizov affects the fortunes of a franchise in ways that very good, and even great players can't.
We saw it when he arrived. The Wild made the playoffs in four of five seasons with Kaprizov in the fold, and that's a big deal. But overnight, Minnesota went from an also-ran team to one that demands attention. Hockey fans who would never give the Wild a second glance otherwise tune in to watch Kaprizov play. Locally, Kaprizov gives the Wild star power to compete with the Vikings and Justin Jefferson, as well as the Timberwolves and Anthony Edwards.
That might not be on-the-ice value, but it matters. Where is fan morale at if Kaprizov spends the season as a Lame Duck Superstar, with one foot out the door? Even if Minnesota made the playoffs afterward, how could fans buy into a product that couldn't hold onto their franchise player?
But then, of course, there's the on-ice value, and that is also astronomical.
Is Kaprizov the best player in the NHL? No. He might not even be Top-5. But he's damn close. Since entering the league, Kaprizov ranks 13th among skaters with 25.9 Standings Points Above Replacement, per Evolving-Hockey. That puts him in a tier with the likes of Matthew Tkachuk (28.1), Elias Pettersson (27.4), and Aleksander Barkov (27.0) in terms of impact. His reputation is even better than that. The Athletic's Player Tiers ranked Kaprizov as the 10th-best player in the NHL, one of 11 dubbed MVP-level.
And in terms of Wild history? Forget it. Five years of Kaprizov is almost lapping the field with everyone else. For context, here are the Wild's top-10 in SPAR. (NOTE: This data only dates back to the 2007-08 season.)
Minnesota Wild Franchise Leaders, SPAR, since 2007-08:
- Jared Spurgeon, 53.9
- Mikko Koivu, 35.4
- Jonas Brodin, 32.9
- Ryan Suter, 30.3
- Joel Eriksson Ek, 26.4
- KIRILL KAPRIZOV, 25.9
- Jason Zucker, 25.8
- Nino Niederreiter, 25.6
- Zach Parise, 22.7
- Mikael Granlund, 22.0
That's just nutty. At that pace, even a 60-game season from Kaprizov should move him up to fourth place on the list. Over nine years of Ryan Suter!!!
And if goals rule everything -- as they should, they're the NHL's most valuable currency -- then Kaprizov is deserving of one of the top contracts in the league. Since his debut, Kaprizov is tied with Sam Reinhart for eighth in goals, behind only Auston Matthews, Draisaitl, David Pastrnak, McDavid, Mikko Rantanen, Alex Ovechkin, and Brayden Point.
The next-best Wild player on that list? It's Eriksson Ek, at 112. If you want to expand it to anyone who wore a Minnesota sweater during that time, it's Kevin Fiala (140), and Kaprizov still has him beat by 45.
Wild owner Craig Leipold understood the assignment: You keep that player, no matter what it takes. Is it a lot of money? Absolutely. Is it a lot of years? Sure is. Can you replace a player like Kaprizov for that money? No way. Not in Minnesota.
That last part bears emphasizing: Minnesota has spent a quarter of a decade being decidedly not a destination for players. There's no doubt that some of those $136 million functions as a tax for Kaprizov to stay in St. Paul rather than bolt to a more traditionally attractive market like New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and others.
The hope isn't just that Kaprizov continues to play like an MVP for the foreseeable future -- though that is a big part of it. It's that Kaprizov's presence keeps changing the Wild's fortunes, turning a place that was formerly a no-go zone for the NHL's elite into an attractive destination.
We'll see what happens from here. But don't kid yourself, whether you're reading this immediately after the fact, or in 2034: The Wild had no choice but to do exactly the thing they did on September 30, 2025. Minnesota may move forward or backward from here, but without Kaprizov, there was just one direction to go: Back to square one to repeat their quarter-decade of irrelevance.
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