totally disagree. How could you say its been one year? The guy was virtually a PPG player in the KHL from ages 20-23. He's been a stud for years. Its not a one year wonder situation at all and no underlying numbers make this season look unsustainable

I can see this working on some other teams without so much dead cap. Unfortunately, I think Minnie cap situation is going to suppress his numbers. Teams need to be able to support good players with good players. I still think he is worth this, despite his relative inexperience in the NHL but, wrong situation here...

With that term & salary, they better hope he’s not a one year wonder.

I like the player and can live w/ the signing.

Team overall though is kinda hurtin':
* Dead Cap is well known
* FWD skill drops off pretty fast
* I like the D, but that core w/ an avg age of 31yrs isn't made up of "no spring chickens"

Isn't this what we were all thinking? I wonder what took so long . . .

People concerned about Minnesota's cap situation next season are overlooking the fact that starting in July, Mats Zuccarello can be sent to any one of 21 teams, so the Wild can afford to pay Fiala $7.5, Greenway and Kahkonen $3, and Sturm $1.5, plus promote or sign enough entry-level-type guys to fill out the roster.

All in all, a good signing for player and team.

Not sure an abbreviated point a game season call for $9 million. Suter and Parise all over again

I mean.... he'll probably be worth it, just amazed that the Wild were actually able to get him to budge to 5 years.

These contract numbers are stupid.

HE IS WORTHY EVERY PENNY!!!

It's not really comparable to Suter and Parise at all though. They were both established players in their primes, who got signed for too many years. Kaprisov is getting paid before he's put together enough of a body of work to prove he's worth the money. The term isn't a risk that could burn the Wild like it was with Suter and Parise.

He’s 24 so they got 2 ufa years from him. Or one.. I’m not sure what you mean by leverage but it’s not exactly the same as with Aho or Matthews.

If we signed him to a contract where he would still be an RFA (1 or 2 year deal), then he could just walk himself to UFA with arbitration. This contract gives us 2 of his UFA years and gets us to a point from a cap perspective where we can offer him as much as we want in order to try to keep him. It would have been nice to get him to sign on for longer, but this was the bare minimum that Guerin should have been shooting for based on term. Anything less would have been a massive disappointment.

Five rounder after 55 games get 9 millions? He will barely have point per game and maybe even negative +/-. Bridge contract would suit this player more

It's literally one year in NHL. Not even that. Fifty something games. Can't recall many players getting large contracts from NHL based on how they performed in Russia, unless the player was significantly older (Shipachyov for example) or had prior NHL experience (Kovalchuk, Radulov for example).

Personally speaking a player with a 50 game experience in NA is not worth $9M. Even Artemi Panarin had to play 160 games+some playoffs in order to earn a 2 year, $6M contract.

Kirill has a higher ceiling than Marner, imo. He scored at a 40G rate last season and could hit 45 this season. But, the Expiry Status makes this contract look a little iffy. 8 years at the same AAV would've looked much better for the Wild.

Giving him anything short of 4 years would have been terrible for us.

Kid? He's 24 - most of the high-end guys his age have been in the league for 5-6 years now. McDavid, Eichel, Aho, Rantanen, Marner, Zacha, Koneckny, Beauvillier, Connor, etc.

Mikko Koskinen was a stud in the KHL for years, even backstopping his team to the Gagarin Cup. Just sayin.

He's a better goal scorer than Marner, but how do you figure he has a higher ceiling?

Marner P/GP
Draft+1: 2.04 OHL
D+2: 0.79 NHL
D+3: 0.84 NHL
D+4: 1.15 NHL
D+5: 1.14 NHL
D+6: 1.22 NHL

Kaprizov P/GP
Draft+1: 0.51 KHL
D+2: 0.86 KHL
D+3: 0.87 KHL
D+4: 0.89 KHL
D+5: 1.09 KHL
D+6: 0.93 NHL

Marner has scored better in the NHL over the past 3 years than Kaprizov has in a lesser league. I must admit it's hard to see your logic from here.

One full season and mid 50s in games played in the NHL. Sorry to those who mentioned the KHL, but still not the NHL and as a division rival in the Wild I sure hope this contract blows up in there face and have not just the dead cap space of Parise/Suter effecting them for years of them not playing for them but this being an anchor as well.

Yuck to 3 straight years of total cap hell after this season.

BUT, BUT - HE WAS A TOP-5 SCORER IN HIS FIRST YEAR!
Uh, he wasn't top-5, sorry.
Oh, he wasn't? OK, at least he was top-10. Had to be. He's the best!
Hate to break it to you, but he wasn't top-10 either.
What's that you say? Not top-10? Heresy! Top-20 scorers get $9M all day, don't they?
Well no, no they don't. Only 18 forwards had a $9M cap hit before today, and anyways, Kaprizov didn't finish in the top-20 in scoring. He was 22nd by total points and 29th by P/GP. The stats are here.
Hmph. Well, he was the Calder winner, being top-30 in the NHL at such a young age means he's got TONS of potential. So there!
Look, I don't hate the player, but you have to understand that he's actually 24 years old already, he's going into his draft+7 season. Can he get better? Absolutely. But temper your expectations a bit - he's not the next Connor McDavid. Actually a great comp would be another Connor - Kyle Connor. Before you start hating me, look at their stats: 55, 27-24-51 for Kaaprizov, 56, 26-24-50 for Connor. One more goal for Kaprizov in One less game. Pretty much spot-on. They were born 4 months apart, so you can't blame that. Connor is on a 7 year $50M deal with an AAV of $7.15M, tell me again why Kaprizov at $9M is such a screaming deal?
.
.
[crickets]
.
.
I'm waiting!
.
.

24 and one year in the league....kid

Koskinen didn't exactly come into the NHL playing at the same level he did in the KHL. lol

Cool story, now compare linemates.

My point exactly. I think it's hilarious people justifying this contract because KK was good in the KHL.