Otherwise, he takes a hike for the NHL’s wildest free-agent bidding contest in history in 2027.
Meantime, for an extra $5 million, the Wild have Kaprizov for nine years — $7.5 million this season, then eight years of the big bucks.
And what was the reaction of this investment by owner Craig Leipold? This week, the Wild was informed by the NHL’s marketing department that the league’s No. 1 selling jersey had become Kaprizov’s.
It has been amazing to see the Wild’s ability to take advantage of North Stars’ nostalgia by wearing their colors. Few remember, it seems, the average attendance dropped 4,000 per game from one season to the next early in North Stars history; that they averaged 7,838 in 1990-91 before that miraculous run to the Stanley Cup Final; that they sold to Green in the summer of ′90 for roughly $100 million less than Kaprizov will be making over the next nine seasons.
No Cups yet, but a fan base that has made this franchise an astounding Minnesota success, and a fan base that does not have to worry about this coming in Year 26 for the Wild:
Leipold showing up in Houston in early March to announce he’s moving the team there, as Green did in Dallas on March 10, 1992.