He may have turned down the richest deal in NHL history, but Kirill Kaprizov and the Minnesota Wild still say they want an agreement.
With training camp opening on Thursday, Kaprizov's contract status — he is set to become a free agent on July 1 — was front and centre.
But Wild general manager Bill Guerin said he would be keeping negotiations private.
"Things are fine. The most important thing is that we want to sign Kirill. He's our franchise player. We want to keep him here. He's a big part of our team. We're working towards that. We're doing the best we can," Guerin said, per Michael Russo of The Athletic.
Kaprizov reportedly turned down an eight-year, $128-million extension offer earlier in September that would have broken NHL records for both average and total value.
On Thursday, he referred questions about free agency to his agent, but reiterated that he hopes to stay in Minnesota, per Russo.
Despite just five seasons in the NHL, Kaprizov has already established himself as one of the league’s most prolific scorers. The three-time 40-plus goal-scorer has been a point-per-game player in all but one of his NHL seasons and captured the Calder Trophy following his rookie season in 2020-21.
The Russian suffered injuries last season that limited him to 41 games, but he made the most of them with 25 goals and 31 assists while matching his career-high shooting percentage at 17.2.
The three-time all-star was a late-round gem for the Wild, selected 135th overall in the 2015 NHL Draft.
