Minnesota Wild winger Kirill Kaprizov is shaping up to be the NHL’s highest-paid player by a wide margin next season after Connor McDavid, Kyle Connor and Jack Eichel inked extensions this weekinstead of potentially reaching unrestricted free agency in July.

Kaprizov will carry a cap hit of $17 million on his record-setting eight-year, $136 million contract. While it appeared last week that deal could reset the market, McDavid took a surprising $12.5 million average annual value on his two-year extension with the Edmonton Oilers before Connor signed for $12 million per year with the Winnipeg Jets on an eight-year deal and Eichel inked for $13.5 million on an eight-year contract with the Vegas Golden Knights.

Despite possibly overpaying, Wild general manager Bill Guerin said he has no regrets in doing what he needed to in order to keep Kaprizov in Minnesota.

“Look, everybody’s got a price to where they want to play in their market, and Kirill is worth that to us. He’s that important to us,’’ Guerin told TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun in The Athletic. “And we couldn’t take the chance of letting him go.

“That’s great for those other teams, but it’s still great for us that we have him for nine years. And yeah, Jack is at $13.5 million, and that’s great. But Kirill is that important to us. If we let him go or we even flirt with it, who knows? The worst-case scenario is definitely that he leaves. It’s worse than paying him $17 million.”

Wild-Kaprizov salary regrets? Not a chance, Bill Guerin says. And what the Connor, Eichel deals mean for Kempe, Tuch, Necas and more in my latest Rumblings for ⁦@TheAthletic⁩ ⤵️ https://t.co/BulkjyOwzM

— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) October 9, 2025

Guerin admits he’s heard the backlash as Kaprizov figures to make $3 million more than the league’s next-highest paid player, Oilers star Leon Draisaitl, in the 2026-27 season. While some say the general manager should have called Kaprizov’s bluff after he rejected a $16 million AAV in August, Guerin says keeping the forward was the team’s lone priority.

“Yeah, people say that; they’re not sitting in my chair,” Guerin said. “That’s easy to say behind a keyboard or from whatever. I don’t apologize or feel like I have to defend it. We did what we felt we had to do to keep our player.”

Replacing Kaprizov likely would have proven difficult with many of the potential top names for next July 1 now off the board. New York Rangers forwardArtemi Panarin, Montreal Canadiens winger Patrik Laine, Martin Necas of the Colorado Avalanche, Adrian Kempe of theLos Angeles Kings andBuffalo SabresforwardAlex Tuch are among the remaining potential candidates to reach free agency.

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 as Minnesota’s series win drought was extended to 10 years – a streak that includes eight postseason appearances.

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.

He will spend this season playing out the last of a five-year, $45 million contract that carries a cap hit of $9 million.

Drafted 135th overall by the Wild in 2015, Kaprizov has 185 goals and 386 points in 319 career games.

Kaprizov won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year in 2021 after recording 27 goals and 51 points in 55 games. Hehas also represented the Wild at the All-Star Game three times.