{"id":148153,"date":"2025-09-16T20:04:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T20:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/148153\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T20:04:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T20:04:07","slug":"pierre-lebrun-on-kirill-kaprizov-minnesota-wild-contract-talks-this-is-not-cordial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/148153\/","title":{"rendered":"Pierre LeBrun on Kirill Kaprizov, Minnesota Wild contract talks: \u2018This is not cordial\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

It appears contract talks are turning sour between the Minnesota Wild<\/a> and star winger Kirill Kaprizov<\/a>.<\/p>\n

TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun said Tuesday on Early Trading that the Wild still want to keep to the pending unrestricted free agent, but are\u00a0growing\u00a0frustrated in talks with his agent, Paul Theofanous.<\/p>\n

The Wild have\u00a0reportedly offered Kaprizov a record-setting eight-year, $128 million contract in negotiations, which would blow past Leon Draisaitl<\/a>\u2018s NHL-high $14 million cap hit at $16 million per year. <\/p>\n

\u201cI did some checking on this file today as well and what I can tell you is that the\u00a0Minnesota Wild<\/a>\u00a0are not even entertaining trade calls from teams,\u201c LeBrun said. \u201cTeams are obviously trying to reach out but right now the Wild, what they\u2019re telling everyone around the league, we\u2019re still trying to sign him. And they believe they can. That\u2019s important to note because I think when a player rejects a contract at that number, you kind of wonder where you go if you\u2019re the Wild.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not even sure there\u2019s that many teams around the league would pay him $16 million a year. But that\u2019s how important he is to the\u00a0Minnesota Wild<\/a>. They still hope to sign him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that there are people in the Wild organization that believe Kaprizov actually wants to stay but this is his agent, Paul Theofanous, who has been around a long time, perhaps trying to get a little more in this negotiation. We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we just talked about the cordial vibes that remain in the [Connor] McDavid\/ [Edmonton] Oilers conversation. This is not cordial. This is a little more edgy, let\u2019s just say, between Kaprizov\u2019s agent and GM\u00a0Bill Guerin<\/a>. I think last week was very emotional and it\u2019s not clear what the endgame here is.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what I will say is this, I don\u2019t think the Wild want to negotiate against themselves either. They feel they made an unbelievable offer at eight years, $16 million a year. I don\u2019t know how much more they can move off there, but they may have to. And again, the question is, does Kaprizov want to stay or not? The Wild believe there is a chance he still does.<\/p>\n

\u201cHarder to say from the player\u2019s side. [Kaprizov] has not spoken since all this broke. He\u2019s set to meet the media in Minnesota on Thursday as camp kicks off, so it will be interesting to see what he has to say from his side of things.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy guess is he\u2019ll be very limited in what he has to say and says he\u2019s allowing negotiations to be handled by his agent, Paul Theofanous. A lot of teams around the league keeping a close eye on this because this one is a little more tense and could go a number of different ways. But for now, the Wild have not asked for a list of teams from Kaprizov, they still hope to sign him and I think that\u2019s what you\u2019ll hear from\u00a0Bill Guerin<\/a>\u00a0when he also meets the media on Thursday.\u201c<\/p>\n

Guerin said last week that he would be continuing to negotiate with Kaprizov after the contract offer went public and downplayed any rift between the two sides. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy role as general manager is to protect our players,\u201d Guerin told the 10,000 Takes show<\/a>. \u201cI know two things. That info didn\u2019t come from us, and it didn\u2019t come from Kirill\u2019s agent. I don\u2019t know where it came from. Kirill\u2019s agent and I have a very good relationship. We\u2019re working through things. We\u2019re not going to let things like this get in the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wild owner Craig Leipold said earlier this month he believed an extension with Kaprizov<\/a> was close, adding it would be \u201clikely the biggest in the NHL ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Draisaitl<\/a> currently holds the title for the NHL\u2019s largest-ever contract after inking an eight-year, $112 million deal with the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> last August, which kicks in this season. <\/p>\n

Kaprizov recorded 25 goals and 56 points while being limited to just 41 games due to injury with the Wild last season. He added five goals and nine points in six playoff games against the Vegas Golden Knights<\/a> as Minnesota\u2019s series win drought was extended to 10 years – a streak that includes eight postseason appearances. <\/p>\n

With 23 goals and 52 points in 37 games to start last season, the 28-year-old winger was considered a Hart Trophy candidate before suffering a lower-body injury. He topped the 40-goal mark in each of the previous three seasons, with a career-high 47 goals and 108 points in 2021-22. <\/p>\n

Kaprizov is entering the final season of a five-year, $45 million contract that carries a cap hit of $9 million. He is currently slated to hit unrestricted free agency next year. <\/p>\n

Drafted 135th overall by the Wild in 2015, Kaprizov has 185 goals and 386 points in 319 career games. <\/p>\n

Kaprizov won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year in 2021 after recording 27 goals and 51 points in 55 games. He also represented the Wild at the All-Star Game three times. <\/p>\n

Related Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It appears contract talks are turning sour between the Minnesota Wild and star winger Kirill Kaprizov. TSN Hockey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[16159,64,63,99941,99940,575,85],"class_list":["post-148153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-apple-news","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-kirill-kaprizov-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8478864","tag-minnesota-wild-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-30","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}