The Minnesota Wild will have some money to spend next offseason, and an extension for Kiril Kaprizov will be a priority
Michael Russo of The Athletic: The giant chunk of dead cap space will be greatly reduced for the Minnesota Wild next offseason. The Zach Parise, Ryan Suter cap hit goes from $14.7 million to $1.7 million. They are already eyeing who could become available next July 1st.
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Wild owner Craig Leipold:
“But we know who they are, and we don’t know whether they’ll end up signing with their current teams or they become UFAs. But we’ve got a list, and if they’re available, we’re going to go after them. And we feel like we’re going to be able to get one or two really good players to add on to this team.”
They’ll have some of their own free agents to take care of but they could be looking at Minnesota native Brock Boeser or Brock Nelson if either becomes available. Other big named UFAs could include Mitch Marner, Mikko Rantanen, and Carter Verhaeghe.
The Wild are also eligible to sign forward Kiril Kaprizov on a contract extension next July 1st, and it’s not going to come cheap.
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“So what does he want? He wants to win.” Leipold said. “So we have to prove to not only to him, but to other UFAs that we also want to win. And we’re used to winning. This is the State of Hockey, and we’re going to get back to the winning ways. We’re going to get a perennial playoff team, but it does start with Kirill. He’s going to be the focus of what we’re going to do. We plan to re-sign him.
“I will tell you nobody will offer more money than us, or longer. So all we have to do is prove to him that we want to win.”
A long-term extension could fall in the range of $12 to $13 million.