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The Minnesota Wild Sign Kirill Kaprizov to 2-year deal


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2 hours ago, Alexandron said:

Completely agree with you. That was my dream to give some day to the team a title of the Wild Machine. 

We'll keep on dreaming. This year the Wild has already surpassed a lot of expectations and hopes.

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In some comments of Russo Twitter it was an interesting prediction on Kaprizov production if he played a regular 82 games season. He would be on a season of 39 goals, and about 72-74 points which is comparable of the rookie seasons of Ovechkin and Crosby.

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The comparisons to a full 82 gm season are fun but a bit skewed. 
Going into this season knowing it's shorter puts more emphasis on each game. Can't afford a lull like we've experience certain months before.
So I think everything is amped up a bit by most players. Sure Kaprizov could reach those #'s and probably will when we get a bit more talent with him.
Zucc has been great with him, But imagine adding Boldy or Rossi to that line.😎

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I still do not know what I could say about Rossi's health condition. Russo mentioned in his article that Rossi was scared by our Minnesota's doctors.  I would recommend to him to take a second opinion at Mayo Clinic in Rochester or at least in Germany. Regarding Boldy,I also do not know what I could say until I will see his play in a Wild club. Hopefully, he is great to fit in the Wild team. Time will show how good they are. 

Regarding Kaprizov, he practically showed all the time his talent at any competitions. His consistency in outstanding play and production are very impressive. Hopefully, he will not get any trauma or injury which will affect negatively his records.

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I am still leaning towards the style of Kaprizov similar to the famous NHL legend Pavel Datsyuk because he is playing all the time like a creator during the game; his goals are beautiful to watch; his passes are just unique . The style for example, of Kucherov or Ovechkin are more like a superb shooters from certain positions, but Kaprizov is always trying to create something unusual, non standard, difficult to read for opponent players  situations, which are very similar to Datsyuk when played in NHL. Hope, it will successfully transfers to the playoffs too. It seems for this season he was the best Russian player among all Russian players played in NHL. His stats even better than Ovechkin stats of season 2020-2021, IMO.🤩.

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Ryan Carter said Kap keeps on surprising him. He said most players have signature moves - I guess he means stuff like Ovechkin's shot or McConnor's breakaway speed with dekes. The thing with Kap is that you never know. He keeps on doing something you hadn't seen him do before. I would be very surprised if he wouldn't be able to be a good playoffs player s well. He's relentless on the puck and extremely gritty for a star player. That together with the hockey IQ, speed, balance and stickhandling should mean good playoffs production as well. There's only one thing I miss from him and that is accurate shooting at full speed. We'll see the first playoffs series pretty soon, so fingers crossed 😎

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On 5/9/2021 at 11:54 AM, lynxrattle said:

Ryan Carter said Kap keeps on surprising him. He said most players have signature moves - I guess he means stuff like Ovechkin's shot or McConnor's breakaway speed with dekes. The thing with Kap is that you never know. He keeps on doing something you hadn't seen him do before. I would be very surprised if he wouldn't be able to be a good playoffs player s well. He's relentless on the puck and extremely gritty for a star player. That together with the hockey IQ, speed, balance and stickhandling should mean good playoffs production as well. There's only one thing I miss from him and that is accurate shooting at full speed. We'll see the first playoffs series pretty soon, so fingers crossed 😎

I agree. It seems for me Kaprizov is a brain for the team, but not exclusively a shooter. He is capable mostly to change the game at the end of regulation or in OT, which is a rare trait for our team. I think his soft unique passes and his unusual goals even more painful for the opponent team than the regular one. In one word he is a professor of the game so far.😊.

Last playoffs season we had exclusively one talented player Fiala who showed in full his eager to help in moving up our team, but that was not enough. He was able to net 4 goals in 5 playoffs games. This season we have more grizzly bears to show their gritty character to be more successful.  They are - Kaprizov; Fiala; Zuccarello; Foligno; EEK; Sturm and I think also Bonino. The other players Hartman; Johansson; Rask; Greenway; Brodin; Spurgeon ;and even Dumba could add a lot of help in their production, which is the most weakest spot during playoffs for our team in 20 years of the Wild history. Except maybe 1st 2 rounds of 2002-2003 season. The 3rd round we lost completely to the Ducks team in that year.

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21 minutes ago, lynxrattle said:

If I think of the league's super stars, Kap's tenacity on the puck might even be better than for example Matthews's or McDavid's. That should be a recipe for playoffs production.

Hope, that recipe including  also a team first strong mentality will help us to pass at least 2 rounds this playoffs season,but , unfortunately, all other 3 teams (VGK, Avalanche and Blues) are still pretty competitive teams against us. I actually do not see a lot of weaknesses in those teams. Hope also that our goalies (Talbot and Kahkonen) will be extremely solid during this period too. Probably, we will see mainly duels battles between Fleury-Grubauer-Talbot (or maybe Kahkonen) - Binnington. The best one will be the winner. Binnington was a winner of 2019 Stanley Cup. Interesting fact, that Stalock who was our starting goalie last playoffs 2019-2020 season played 0 games for Edmonton this season. Still do not know why? 

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5 hours ago, Alexandron said:

Here is an interesting video analysis on Kaprizov's play, which was published recently at hockeywilderness.

https://www.hockeywilderness.com/2021/5/11/22429520/minnesota-wild-kirill-kaprizov-video-analysis-kevin-fiala-playoffs-nhl

Excellent analysis with nice clips to go with the text. I especially like the stats about the shot. Who am I kidding, I loved every single tidbit in the article 😎 

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43 minutes ago, lynxrattle said:

Excellent analysis with nice clips to go with the text. I especially like the stats about the shot. Who am I kidding, I loved every single tidbit in the article 😎 

I agree. I even do not remember such a detailed analysis was done for any our players in 20 years. It is like a science for me of an excellent talent which was signed for our team by GM. And I am proud already, that Kaprizov will be our 1st Calder trophy winner for the Wild organization. Hope, by the help of GM, we will have them more like Avs has 3 winners in the last decade and the results of the team success is evident. Because of their superb play Colorado team became the best team of the regular season and will receive a President trophy for this season.

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Here is another analytic article from hockeywilderness regarding Kaprizov's play after 2 playoffs games:

https://www.hockeywilderness.com/2021/5/20/22444704/kirill-kaprizov-minnesota-wild-playoffs-2021-nhl-calder

 

He had one primary assist during the 1st period in game #3, which is already an improvement for his playoffs experience. 

I still do not accept this play against him even during playoffs series:

 

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I'd like to see those crosschecks called too - eventually one of those will cause injuries. However, the Wild can't do much to change the way the refs call during the playoffs. I think Kap knows what to expect, and knows how to handle himself. Even in that clip the end result is that he pushes Whitecloud off his skates. Kap might have got a call, if he had managed to get the puck free, and would've been taking off with the puck with the same kind of effort, that he showed while not being able to skate. He needs help. If Fiala and Rask had been Landeskog and MacKinnon, or even Greener and Eek, the pair working with Kap might have been able to win the struggles against McNabb and Karlsson, getting the play moving again.

 

If the Wild really needs to stop crosschecking Kap, they have to be extremely violent. To send the message to VGK they would need to start crosschecking Stone or even Fluffy in a way causing potential injuries, or to send the message to the refs and the NHL controlling the way the refs call the next game, by starting line brawls in the style of Tortorella's best/worst days, possibly losing the particular game because of the consequences. The message being: "If you VGK are making this game a shitshow, so will we", "If you the refs/NHL are making this game a shitshow, so will we". There are no free rides in the playoffs, you pay nothing, you get nothing. You have to fight for the right to get those crosschecks called. And fighting hurts in many nasty ways. But so does losing.

 

Sorry for the ranting. The last period I saw them play still stings :hockey-penalty-box-smiley-emoticon:

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Some media are talking that Kaprizov is playing with undisclosed injuries during these playoffs series. When I looked again on a video above Whitecloud crosschecked to Kaprizov 2 times out of 3 into his kidneys and McNabb crosschecked to Kaprizov one time into his neck at the same time. No Vegas defensemen received a least one penalty for that play.

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So, what's the deal with Kap and his contract - is it up after this year...? Guessing he's a RFA - but what does that mean - that MN has to throw crazy money at him or he has other options...?  I know he blew a season last year - and now played this year for minimal - but curious what will probably play out after this season when his 2 years is up... (??)  (boy, and to think Kap would be a fraction of Zach's yearly payout - ugh)

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3 hours ago, Confrontational said:

So, what's the deal with Kap and his contract - is it up after this year...? Guessing he's a RFA - but what does that mean - that MN has to throw crazy money at him or he has other options...?  I know he blew a season last year - and now played this year for minimal - but curious what will probably play out after this season when his 2 years is up... (??)  (boy, and to think Kap would be a fraction of Zach's yearly payout - ugh)

It's not the easiest. Guerin needs to give Kap what he is worth, and at the same time we already have crazy money on 20 and 11. A short contract is risky - we don't want to lose him like Gaborik - and a long contract would need the money to be found somewhere without losing the competitiveness of the team. I'd rather not think about it all! I'm pretty sure I'd have nightmares. I'd rather live in daydreams, where 11 and 20 find new homes somewhere far away from Minnesota.

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^^ My bet is it is likely to get pretty messy too - since I'm guessing him and his agent think he's going to be much more valuable than what is offered - so will have to arbitrate and find another couple people to justify what they're gonna want for comparables - and suppose they'll also use 11 and 20 to bookend their deal pointing to their contract lengths...  Of course all this will happen with Russian translators making it even murkier...  

 

When do they have to have something done...?

 

Also, imagine how many other teams are licking their chops and have the money to do it...  

 

No doubt Parise feels the heat lacing up next to him knowing his own price tag...  Maybe MN will give him some cushy back office PR job to get him to bend...

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