Minnesota Wild sign Kirill Kaprizov to richest deal in NHL history: US$136 million over 8 years

FILE - Minnesota Wild left wing Kirill Kaprizov (97) celebrates after his winning goal against the Montreal Canadiens during overtime of an NHL hockey game Thursday, Dec. 21, 2023, in St Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn, File)

The Minnesota Wild signed star left wing Kirill Kaprizov to an eight-year, US$136-million extension on Tuesday, giving him the richest contract in NHL history.

The 28-year-old Kaprizov will count $17 million against the salary cap beginning next season, through 2034. That’s the highest annual average salary of any player since the league’s cap era began in 2005, surpassing Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl at $112 million over eight years, a $14 million annual average. Alex Ovechkin’s 13-year, $124 million contract signed with Washington in 2008 was previously the highest total value.

“We never wanted to entertain Kirill not being here,” general manager Bill Guerin said.

Kaprizov’s contract sets a new bar at one of the most intriguing financial times in pro hockey. The best player in the world, Connor McDavid, is entering the final year of his contract with Edmonton and could become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. Jack Eichel (Vegas) and Artemi Panarin (New York Rangers) are also pending unrestricted free agents.

Kaprizov will play this season on the final year of a five-year, $45-million deal he signed in September 2021, when he started that contract by tallying 47 goals and 61 assists in 81 games in the 2021-22 season, all career highs. Kaprizov holds several franchise records, including the best career plus-minus rating (plus-71) by a forward.

Kaprizov, who has 386 points in 319 regular-season games and 21 points in 25 playoff games, opened training camp without a deal but reiterated to reporters after the first practice session how much he enjoys the Twin Cities area, the fans, his teammates and the organization.

Still, he acknowledged on Tuesday that the signing provided significant relief with the regular season starting in nine days.

“Now it’s all done and we just start playing and we don’t think about this,” Kaprizov said.

Kaprizov won the Calder Trophy with 27 goals and 24 assists in 55 games in the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season and has been the Wild’s most productive and dynamic player ever since. He received 99 of 100 first-place votes as the league’s top rookie, becoming the first Wild player to win the award.

Drafted in the fifth round in 2015, Kaprizov stayed and played in the KHL in his native Russia until finally signing with Minnesota in July 2020. The only snags for the Wild since then have come off the ice. The pandemic made negotiations more difficult on his previous deal, which didn’t get done until right before training camp.

The following summer, his return to Russia led to a stressful offseason for the entire organization as Kaprizov ran into several roadblocks in his attempt to travel back to the U.S. because of political relations between the two countries. Expiration of his work visa and pandemic-related backlogs at foreign consulates made the paperwork process more complicated.

Injuries began to pop up for Kaprizov, but he still managed 40 goals and 35 assists in 67 games in 2022-23 and 46 goals and 50 assists in 75 games in 2023-24. Last season was his most frustrating, when an unspecified lower-body injury eventually required surgery and ultimately cost him 40 games. He still had 25 goals and 31 assists and returned to the ice with a flourish right before the playoffs, when he had five goals and four assists in a six-game loss in the first round to the Vegas Golden Knights.

Kaprisov is beloved in the Wild locker room, a frequently smiling, soft-spoken player who has improved his English to the point where he doesn’t use an interpreter like he did at the beginning of his career. Only right wing Marian Gaborik, the first player ever drafted by the Wild, who entered the league as an expansion club in 2000, had a skill set and scoring touch that rivaled Kaprizov’s in the history of a franchise that has not advanced past the first round of the playoffs in 10 years and never reached the Stanley Cup Final.

Until now, the longest and richest contracts in Wild history went to left wing Zach Parise and defenseman Ryan Suter, who signed identical 13-year, $98-million deals on July 4, 2012. The buyouts of those deals in 2021 came at a cost, particularly during the last two seasons with the charges accounting for about 17 per cent of the team’s salary cap.

------

By Dave Campbell

AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno contributed.