2021 MN Wild/NHL Thread

CaptainMusky wrote:

I want to actually hear from KK himself. Everything thus far has been at the hands of his agent who has a history of being difficult.

Everybody does, but do you ever hear from a player during a negotiation? Let alone a foreign player who only has a 8 month relationship with the local media via a few Zoom calls? I’m sure Russo has reached out to Kirill, but I would think that would be a very awkward call with a likely interpreter involved as well..

I think the only thing that makes sense is for GMBG to fly to Russia and speak to him face to face…find out what Kirill’s intentions are? Does he truly have negatives feelings about a long term commitment with the Wild and MN? if so, what can GMBG truly do about that? You sign him to a short term deal and look to immediately trade him…

or is this ALL about $$ and if that’s the case, GOOD! you agree to sign him to the shorter deal with the full intention of re-signing the HUGE 8 year extension afterwards when the Parise and Suter hits are off the books… I think the Wild would be happy about that as we’ll know after the 3-4 year deal if Kirill is truly worthy of that type of deal and if so, you’re more than happy to pay your superstars…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

or is this ALL about $$ and if that’s the case, you agree to sign him to the shorter deal with the full intention of signing the HUGE 8 year extension afterwards when the Parise and Suter hits are off the books… I think the Wild would be happy about that as we’ll know after the 3-4 year deal if Kirill is truly worthy of that type of deal and if so, you’re more than happy to pay your superstars…

A 4 year deal makes the most sense to KK IMO. That gets him to UFA status and sets him up for big pay day. 8 years would be ideal from the Wild perspective, but KK isnt going to want that because if he continues his trajectory he will be underpaid. A 3 year deal makes sense too. I agree if he does a 3 or 4 year deal and the Wild are no closer to being a significant contender he deserves to explore the market.

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
or is this ALL about $$ and if that’s the case, you agree to sign him to the shorter deal with the full intention of signing the HUGE 8 year extension afterwards when the Parise and Suter hits are off the books… I think the Wild would be happy about that as we’ll know after the 3-4 year deal if Kirill is truly worthy of that type of deal and if so, you’re more than happy to pay your superstars…

A 4 year deal makes the most sense to KK IMO. That gets him to UFA status and sets him up for big pay day. 8 years would be ideal from the Wild perspective, but KK isnt going to want that because if he continues his trajectory he will be underpaid. A 3 year deal makes sense too. I agree if he does a 3 or 4 year deal and the Wild are no closer to being a significant contender he deserves to explore the market.

Yeah, GMBG wants to sign him to a MacKinnon type deal (any GM would) that looks like an absolute steal for the majority of it…Kirill’s camp has every right to avoid that and GMBG needs to understand that too, from the interviews he’s done, he’s repeatedly said he wants a deal that works for BOTH sides, so I guess we’ll see…

The 3-4 year deal also protects the Wild as well just incase Kirill was only a 56 game revelation and playing a full schedule against all 32 teams shows any warts his game might have (I haven’t seen any, but who knows)

A Russian paper published a story from a “source” that says Kaprizov will not be playing in Russia and that his intentions are to sign and NHL contract. It’s very obvious who these leaks are coming from regarding the KHL and its no surprise at all.
Russo should be staking out the airport watching for BG to board a plane.

Russo has pointed out a 3 year deal is only a 2 year deal in reality because if you can’t get him to sign an extension in that second year you pretty much have to trade him. Given the agent he has negotiations are always going to be extremely difficult. Imo KK must know what is going on in terms of negotiations unless they have him chained in the gulag basement over there. The fact we have not heard a single solitary peep from him or some source that says KK feels this or that way I have to believe he is happy with the way things are going. At this stage he’s content with his agent digging his heels in.

I think Joe said this isn’t about money with him because he gave his KHL money to his parents and all he wants to do is win. That makes sense considering what he has turned down and Billy saying he’s willing to negotiate a a shorter deal but not just a walk to free agency. Maybe KK feels he will spend too many good years on a Wild team that may not contend for 5 years or perhaps longer. He runs the risk of getting seriously injured and playing with centers of the Rask variety is not going to help his numbers and devaluing his future worth. None of us know but it’s fun speculating until the shoe drops.

An interesting stat I saw earlier about the season that KK had last year. There were only 8 rookies who had the .49 goals per game and .93 points per game since 1984.
The other 7 are all surefire HOF or already in.
Now imagine if Zucc was with him at the start of the season or there was someone more capable at center than Rask.

Ice Cap wrote:

Russo has pointed out a 3 year deal is only a 2 year deal in reality because if you can’t get him to sign an extension in that second year you pretty much have to trade him. Given the agent he has negotiations are always going to be extremely difficult. Imo KK must know what is going on in terms of negotiations unless they have him chained in the gulag basement over there. The fact we have not heard a single solitary peep from him or some source that says KK feels this or that way I have to believe he is happy with the way things are going. At this stage he’s content with his agent digging his heels in.

I think Joe said this isn’t about money with him because he gave his KHL money to his parents and all he wants to do is win. That makes sense considering what he has turned down and Billy saying he’s willing to negotiate a a shorter deal but not just a walk to free agency. Maybe KK feels he will spend too many good years on a Wild team that may not contend for 5 years or perhaps longer. He runs the risk of getting seriously injured and playing with centers of the Rask variety is not going to help his numbers and devaluing his future worth. None of us know but it’s fun speculating until the shoe drops.

Signing him to a 3 year deal is a HUGE tell that they intend to just trade him.

I just don’t get the argument that he demands to play for a contender right now, back to my 5 year roster projection argument based on a basically flat cap, any team that has a chance at winning the cup likely is already cap maxed and has their cap/roster planned out 4-5 years already, sure they’ll be trades for the league minimum role players, but any decisions about bringing in a huge contract have already been made most likely and they won’t want to give back the types of players needed to make the money work (outside of the few teams at the cap floor like Detroit and Ottawa)

Sure the Wild can’t be big spenders in FA the next 4 years, but they have one of the better prospect pools in the league to plug in….

CaptainMusky wrote:

An interesting stat I saw earlier about the season that KK had last year. There were only 8 rookies who had the .49 goals per game and .93 points per game since 1984.
The other 7 are all surefire HOF or already in.
Now imagine if Zucc was with him at the start of the season or there was someone more capable at center than Rask.

This is very true and likely one of the stats his agent uses in negotiations to justify his huge contract $ ask, but also remember 1/2 of those 56 games were against terrible teams and if I remember correctly, his stats were heavily padded playing against those bad teams (Kings/Ducks/Coyotes) vs playing the top 3 teams (Avalanche/Golden Knights/Blues) in our micro division, this is the stat GMBG will counter that argument with…

If a three year deal is all he will take then trade him now. I’d bet he’d take considerably less if he felt he could play on a contender that would be a upgrade of the Wild team. It’s not the Wild’s fault he pissed away five years in the KHL before deciding to finally come here and maybe he never liked what he really saw in them to begin with. Tony Abbott just wrote a pretty decent article about this and I think he makes a good argument for trading both Fiala and KK at this point and going with their team of prospects and building a even more onto what they have until they are out from under these buyouts.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>CaptainMusky wrote:</div>
An interesting stat I saw earlier about the season that KK had last year. There were only 8 rookies who had the .49 goals per game and .93 points per game since 1984.
The other 7 are all surefire HOF or already in.
Now imagine if Zucc was with him at the start of the season or there was someone more capable at center than Rask.

This is very true and likely one of the stats his agent uses in negotiations to justify his huge contract $ ask, but also remember 1/2 of those 56 games were against terrible teams and if I remember correctly, his stats were heavily padded playing against those bad teams (Kings/Ducks/Coyotes) vs playing the top 3 teams (Avalanche/Golden Knights/Blues) in our micro division, this is the stat GMBG will counter that argument with…

I actually looked that up. Out of KK’s 27 goals 18 were against the Yotes, Kings, Ducks and Sharks. Six more were against Vegas who put a stop to that once the playoffs started.He never could muster much against the Avalanche or Blues. And imo that first overtime game winner against the Kings by him was a luck goal and not a skill goal. That really sent the hype into the stratosphere.

Kaprizov for Eichel making more sense every day.

tswoboda wrote:

Kaprizov for Eichel making more sense every day.

Other than the fact that Eichel has a neck injury that will probably hamper him for the rest of his career.

See if Kirill likes paying no income taxes in Florida, do a Barkov for Kaprizov trade….

I shutter at the thought that we waited 5 years to get him, he is everything we could have hoped for and now trade him. I realize it may come to that at some point if things don’t change, but I guess I am a hopefully optimistic and think he will sign a shorter deal with the hopes the team builds to be a contender and then get his pay day when we make a push hopefully soon.

CaptainMusky wrote:

I shutter at the thought that we waited 5 years to get him, he is everything we could have hoped for and now trade him. I realize it may come to that at some point if things don’t change, but I guess I am a hopefully optimistic and think he will sign a shorter deal with the hopes the team builds to be a contender and then get his pay day when we make a push hopefully soon.

true that, but we only invested a 5th rounder into him and his return should be absolutely huge with 2 dynomite drafts coming up…. The Wild can do everything in their power to make him comfortable here, but if he just doesn’t want to be here, he just doesn’t want to be here…

I don’t think that’s the case, I think he’s just listening to his agent (I’m sure his buddy Artemi gave him a call and said “stick with Paul, look how it all turned out for me”) Who knows, maybe he signs for 4 years and Rossi turns into an absolute stud and they become the next Hull & Oates?

It’s all speculation until he either signs or doesn’t….

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I don’t think that’s the case, I think he’s just listening to his agent (I’m sure his buddy Artemi gave him a call and said “stick with Paul, look how it all turned out for me”)

It’s all speculation until he either signs or doesn’t….

I dont know if he is listening to his agent or not. Perhaps just in his hands to deal with it. If it were up to KK he may have signed already but like you say who knows. I would hope they communicate, but Theofanus is kind of a recluse.
I just want it to be done. From reports I have been seeing out of Russia no one thinks there is any chance he is playing there.

I’m guessing all of this Kaprizov drama has loosened the purse strings a bit with the idea of how much to pay Fiala, maybe soon after they come to an agreement with him before his arbitration date, they sit in a conf room and put their cards on the table, speak directly to Kirill about how they’ve killed the 1st year of his rookie deal and then offered him the largest contract in team history after only 55 games all in good faith of making him happy. Then tell his camp here’s our final offer (4 & 5 term options) pick one or go sign the KHL deal, you have until September 1st to make your decision…

Tell his camp throughout this process the Wild has never played media games with Kirill’s contract and the Wild aren’t in the mood to be played with anymore…

Flip the script….

Russo the resident expert insider right? Has said if it were any other agent this would have been done a month or more ago. He says he has known and dealt with Theofaus for nearly 30 years and this is just the guys history he is a bitch to deal with and at times it goes beyond what the player deserves or thinks he should get it’s to hold a team hostage. Russo admitted he said that at the risk of pissing the guy off and never getting a text or any info from him ever again. But he also said he didn’t have any inside info telling him that to be the truth either. Just his guess.

This goes on much longer fan perception is going to change as well. He’s going to go from the franchise saviour to the guy who held the team hostage or who didn’t want to be here but had no other choice. I’m pretty close to it myself and I know I’m not alone. Then when he goes into a slump, makes a mistake that winds up in the back of our net, or just has a bad game which is going to happen the boos are going to come down on him. I doubt he’s ever experienced that and I doubt he will like it very much.

I agree Joe flip the script. BG knows full well what he will do and what he won’t do. Call the bluff now. Take one of these offers or stay where you are. The longer this goes the worse it’s starting to look. If anything KK owes the Wild some concession for keeping them at arms length for 5 years when in actuality he screwed himself out of millions so how smart is the kid beyond hockey? Now if you don’t get KK you have a already disgruntled Fiala. Maybe that article I posted above is looking more correct. Deal them both now for many more prospects and draft picks then use that to build off of and come out in 4 or 5 years with a young solid team and a lot of cap space to work in.

Wait. No say it ain’t so. Fans media and management turning on a star player. No I thought we didn’t do that here. I thought we treat them like God’s. Give them what they want. Yeah trade them both and then convince Brodin Spurg (NTC) and Dumba to stick around for five years while we replenish the cupboard. Good luck with that. Good luck getting butts in the seats coming off 2 years of no fans. All while Bill G is off doing something else while these prospects hopefully pan out. Have to imagine that would be a tough sell to the ol owner.
This sounds earily like another sports team in this town.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CSZ7P_xFjik/?utm_medium=copy_link

For those that like watching Rossi home videos. KK going all Rocky style.

https://playmaker24-ru.translate.goog/interview/kirill-kaprizov-ne-ljublju-govorit-o-dengah-da-i-ne-zarabotal-ja-poka-stolko-skolko-panarin/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=ajax,nv

Hopefully this works

It worked pretty well… I think we forget how difficult it must have been to be a 23 year old kid living alone in a foreign country with an obvious language barrier during a f’ing global pandemic!!!

The fact he mentions he gets involved in contract negotiations is a little worrisome based on the stalemate were in…

There’s definitely a little ego to him when he mentions other players skillsets…… I now think back to his “$hit Players” group chat comment and think maybe he was totally serious…

Worked for me. The biggest revelation is he is involved with the contract talks and knows exactly what is being offered him. He sounds like a Russian homeboy to me.

To comment on your post above Joe as I speculated earlier these is no way he does not know what is being offered to him. He does have a arrogance about his game which can also become problematic. If he’s not performing it will never be his fault always someone around him is not up to his level. Most things he said about the Wild were sounding like being polite.

The interview certainly opened up a little window thanks for posting it.

Ice Cap wrote:

Worked for me. The biggest revelation is he is involved with the contract talks and knows exactly what is being offered him. He sounds like a Russian homeboy to me.

To comment on your post above Joe as I speculated earlier these is no way he does not know what is being offered to him. He does have a arrogance about his game which can also become problematic. If he’s not performing it will never be his fault always someone around him is not up to his level. Most things he said about the Wild were sounding like being polite.

The interview certainly opened up a little window thanks for posting it.

You got all that from 60ish games and a handful of broken English interviews.
You should be a sports psychologist.

Here’s a quote from the interview. So as I said the biggest revelation from the interview was he is and has been involved in the contract negotiations and knows exactly what the offers are. So this is not all agent driven as has been speculated. No Svengoolie here just reading comprehension!

– When discussing your future contract with Minnesota, figures of $ 9-10 million appear. Doesn’t blow your head?

– I don’t think too much about it. There is no such thing that now I will take this money – that’s all.

– How involved are you in negotiating a new contract? Or left everything at the mercy of the agent?

– Of course, I participate. All this is discussed together.

Ice Cap wrote:

Here’s a quote from the interview. So as I said the biggest revelation from the interview was he is and has been involved in the contract negotiations and knows exactly what the offers are. So this is not all agent driven as has been speculated. No Svengoolie here just reading comprehension!

– When discussing your future contract with Minnesota, figures of $ 9-10 million appear. Doesn’t blow your head?

– I don’t think too much about it. There is no such thing that now I will take this money – that’s all.

– How involved are you in negotiating a new contract? Or left everything at the mercy of the agent?

– Of course, I participate. All this is discussed together.

well that is not that damning like you make it out to be. Theofanous tells him the offer, says don’t take this it’s ridiculous blah blah blah. So, the only thing I gleen from that is apparently his agent is talking to him. That’s it. No more, no less.

This whole “play in Russia” is just complete BS. He has no interest in playing there he’s a professional and has excelled at every level and wants to elevate. He knows playing in the NHL is the only way to do it. So much is made of nothing. Countless “sources” have said one thing vs the other but he’s not going back there unless things really go pearshaped which I don’t see happening. This “leak” was to get media and fans in a frenzy which it obviously did.

Well it’s been said several times on these pages that no one has heard directly from KK and until we do…. and now we finally do and nobody wants to take him at his word on his very direct replies about if he’s involved in the negotiations or not. I don’t know how he could be more succinct and short in his answers. No long tap dancing non-answer just straight up yes I participate and no there is no such thing I will take this money now-that is all. If he’s just a sock puppet for his agent he could have very easily said that’s my agents business, next question.

We all interpret things differently but I guess I will take it directly from the kid himself.

Ice Cap wrote:

We all interpret things differently but I guess I will take it directly from the kid himself.

Interpret is the operative word since what he says in Russian is interpreted by someone else into English which we have obviously seen things dont come out similarly in English.
I am glad to hear he is participating, but what he said is that he isnt taking the offer at this time. What more are you getting from that? There should be no surprise about this taking a while. BG has said these things take time.

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ice Cap wrote:</div>
We all interpret things differently but I guess I will take it directly from the kid himself.

Interpret is the operative word since what he says in Russian is interpreted by someone else into English which we have obviously seen things dont come out similarly in English.

Fair enough. We will all know the outcome in a few weeks I imagine.