{"id":216473,"date":"2025-09-10T21:10:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T21:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/216473\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T21:10:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T21:10:16","slug":"wilds-kirill-kaprizov-turns-down-richest-contract-in-nhl-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/216473\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild&#8217;s Kirill Kaprizov turns down richest contract in NHL history"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kirill Kaprizov wants something more \u2014 even if no one is entirely sure what that means.<\/p>\n<p>The Wild forward\u2019s camp <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/frank_seravalli\/status\/1965812721955570082\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reportedly turned down<\/a> an eight-year, $128 million contract extension from Minnesota, a deal that would be the richest in NHL history in both total money and average annual value at $16 million.<\/p>\n<p>It would have surpassed Kaprizov\u2019s countryman Alex Ovechkin\u2019s 13-year, $124 million deal signed in 2008.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37075178\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/kirill-kaprizov-97-minnesota-wild-16251478.jpg\" alt=\"Kirill Kaprizov #97 of the Minnesota Wild playing hockey.\" class=\"wp-image-37075178\"  \/>Kirill Kaprizov #97 of the Minnesota Wild passes the puck against the St. Louis Blues. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The 28-year-old is set to enter Wild training camp this month in the final year of a five-year, $45 million deal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just feel like we\u2019re not that far off,\u201d owner Craig Leipold <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6616684\/2025\/09\/10\/wild-kirill-kaprizov-contract-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told The Athletic<\/a> last week. \u201cI kind of think we\u2019re there. I like to believe when Kirill comes over and gets a sense again for the excitement and the love of the city, I think we\u2019ll be moving forward in a good direction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If the historic contract wasn\u2019t enough for the Russian sniper, what would be? There have been few public indications of what Kaprizov could be looking for in a deal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll see. I love everything here. It should be all good,\u201d he said in May. \u201cIt\u2019s always, every time, it\u2019s about winning. Everyone wants to win. Me, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>A three-time 40-goal scorer in his five-year NHL career, the 2015 fifth-round pick would fetch a high price in any market, trade or free agent.<\/p>\n<p>He finished second on the team with 25 goals and third with 56 points despite playing just 41 games in an injury-marred campaign.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37075182\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/kirill-kaprizov-97-minnesota-wild-109882125.jpg\" alt=\"Kirill Kaprizov #97 of the Minnesota Wild celebrates a goal.\" class=\"wp-image-37075182\"  \/>Kirill Kaprizov #97 of the Minnesota Wild celebrates his power-play goal against the Vegas Golden Knights. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>In 319 career games, he\u2019s posted 185 goals and 386 points, winning the Calder Trophy as top rookie in 2020-21.<\/p>\n<p>The Wild open the season in St. Louis on Oct. 9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kirill Kaprizov wants something more \u2014 even if no one is entirely sure what that means. The Wild&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":216474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3112,293,62,46761,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-216473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-minnesota-wild","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-sports-contracts","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115182057885345287","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}