ST. PAUL, Minn. — The clock is ticking.
After a tough first two months of the season in which he scored two even-strength goals in his first 20 games, the Minnesota Wild’s Kirill Kaprizov had a spectacular second half, finishing with 46 goals — one shy of his career high — and 96 points.
But his output was wasted on a team that failed to make the playoffs.
President of hockey operations and general manager Bill Guerin pointed out that Kaprizov tried to “put the team on his back” down the stretch when the Russian superstar had 20 goals in his final 21 games.
But you could tell how much it pained Kaprizov, who turns 27 on Friday, to not be in the postseason. When asked if he was happy with his season, he simply said no.
Why? Because winning, the playoffs … that’s what drives him.
And that’s what makes next season such a pivotal one for the Wild, to give Kaprizov hope that he can be part of a contender. He’s eligible to sign an extension on July 1, 2025, one year ahead of unrestricted free agency, and the Wild have yet to put together a supporting cast that has gotten them past the first round in Kaprizov’s tenure.
As owner Craig Leipold said candidly before the season, Kaprizov, who has completely rewritten the Wild’s record book, is a big part of their future, “but only if he stays here.”
“I would be lying to you if it’s not on our minds,” Leipold said last fall.
Kaprizov, in the prime of his career, has every right to determine whether this is where he can win.
“That’s what I love about (Kaprizov) is that he wants to win,” Guerin said after conducting exit meetings with his players Friday. “When you have star players, I think you have to show them how committed you are as well. That doesn’t always mean in their personal situation, their contract or their stats or whatever. It’s about the team. It’s about the surroundings.
“Kirill wants to win. I know that. And yeah, I do feel that we need to show him that we’re committed to winning. I know he likes it here. I know he’s enjoyed playing here. I know he’s had success playing here. But you know, we can get better. And I think we can continue to surround him and keep building to surround him with a better team.”
You can’t blame Leipold, Guerin and fans for already fretting. Beyond the fact that it took this organization 20 years to unearth a bona fide superstar, it also took this franchise five years after drafting Kaprizov to get him to come over from Russia. It also was quite the contract battle to re-sign him to his current five-year, $45 million contract after he won the Calder Trophy in 2021.
So nothing has ever been simple when signing Kaprizov.
Kaprizov isn’t sure about his offseason plans yet, whether he’s staying stateside to train or returning to Russia. Remember, he spent the entire offseason in Minnesota and Florida last summer because he had so much difficulty getting back to the United States two summers ago.
He’s healthy, which is good news. When asked what needs to change for the team, Kaprizov brought up injuries to key players like Jared Spurgeon, Marcus Foligno, Jonas Brodin and himself.
It’s clear Kaprizov wasn’t 100 percent at the start of the season, stemming from his hamstring injury last spring. Then he sustained a rib injury in Winnipeg on Dec. 30 that removed him from the Wild’s lineup at the worst time — right when they got back into a playoff spot and before integral games inside the division.
Once he returned, he scored 33 goals and 62 points in 41 games — a season pace of 66 goals and 124 points. From Jan. 13 on, Kaprizov’s 33 goals were second in the NHL and his 62 points were tied for second.
Kaprizov said he hopes the Wild learn from their mistakes this season, but, “I hope we’re all healthy next year and just try playing our hockey, that’s it.”
He had to carry the team offensively; Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy were pretty much a one-line team in the second half.
But it wasn’t a burden to Kaprizov.
“No, I don’t feel like this,” Kaprizov said. “You mean pressure, like bad pressure? No, I think everyone (wants) for me goals, and I know this, and it’s like normal for me. I need to score goals. Every guy knows his position. My position is to score goals, help the team win games. It’s no pressure. It’s just good pressure. It helps me to be better at hockey.”
“My position is to score goals to help the team win games.”
🗣️ Kirill on understanding the expectations of him on this team.#mnwild pic.twitter.com/aXMEy4iWV5
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) April 19, 2024
It was asked on Friday, how does Kaprizov feel about the future of this team? Does this team have a chance to compete in the playoffs?
“I think a lot of guys stay a long time in this team and we know each other,” Kaprizov said. “When I came here, more than half the team played the last four years here. Same guys. We know each other and I don’t like (to) say what had happened where. I like just (focusing) on now. I feel we have a lot of good players on the team. We always have a chance to win games and go in playoffs, fighting there.”
Kaprizov was given an “A” on his sweater before this past season, a sign of his growing leadership role on the team. The Wild also wanted to give him some ownership. But he can’t do it alone, and teammates realize it’s on them to support him.
“That’s a guy we obviously want to keep happy and make sure that he’s feeling comfortable here and knowing that it’s a team that can get the job done,” Foligno said. “He’s such a huge piece of this team and you need superstars to win you games and to pull you out of holes.
“But at the end of the day, he wants to win a championship. So do we all, so not getting anything done, especially this year, I’m sure he’s very frustrated. I know he takes pride in points and scoring, but he wants to win at the end of the day. That’s what makes him so great, so likable as a teammate. We’ve got to make sure that we’re supporting a player like that.
“Every team has a superstar on their team, but this guy’s different. He’s built for playoff hockey. He’s built to win championships. I think we’re going to see more of that from Kirill next year and moving forward. You want to see the rest of us be a better supporting cast for him.”
Hynes was impressed with Kaprizov’s combination of talent, competitiveness and love for the game, which can be contagious. He treats pregame skates like normal practices. Even in Games 81 and 82, with nothing to play for, Kaprizov acted like they were playoff games. He was the hardest worker on the ice, especially in L.A., where he was dynamic every shift.
“Every day, he drives the team that way, but the combination of his skill set and how hard he competes, that’s rare to find,” Hynes said. “A player that skilled, that talented, that has that competitive edge to his game, it’s been really impressive.”
The question is: If the Wild end their season in mid-April next season, without the playoffs, will that impact Kaprizov’s thinking on his future with the team?
He had no interest in hypotheticals.
“I don’t know. We’ll see what happens next year,” Kaprizov said. “I can’t say if we don’t make playoffs. I hope we make playoffs next year.”
Faber hopes for big sophomore encore
Brock Faber’s summer will still be a busy one.
While Faber won’t play in May’s world championships as he allows his broken ribs to heal, he’s excited to potentially attend the June 27 NHL Awards in Vegas and walk the red carpet as one of the expected Calder Trophy finalists.
“It’d be awesome,” he said.
Faber plans to have a full summer of training to follow up his terrific rookie season. That’ll be important, as Guerin noted, especially with the former University of Minnesota captain expected to sign a long-term extension in the range of a $9 million average annual value.
“The goal is to become one of the best defensemen in the league,” Faber said. “I’m confident in myself, the way I train and the way I look at the game. The person I am, just try my best this offseason to keep growing. I think the offensive side of my game and again, an 82-game season isn’t something I’m quite used to and obviously hopefully playoffs next year. So even more than that. I’ll just do what I can to get my body ready. Keep getting bigger, stronger, faster, and you know, try to touch up the offensive side of my game to keep growing.”
Faber said the biggest thing he learned as a rookie was how to find consistency, knowing it was a “whole new beast” defending the likes of Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon and Auston Matthews.
“I have a lot to improve on,” he said.
“I have a lot to improve on and build in my own game.”
🗣️ Fabes talks about his first year in the NHL and what he’s looking for from his own game moving forward.#mnwild pic.twitter.com/J5Q9k47WyY
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) April 19, 2024
Faber racked up 47 points this season (eight goals), playing the power play for pretty much the first time after Hynes took over. In doing so, he gained some confidence and raised the ceiling for what he thought he could produce offensively in the NHL.
“I kind of got a taste of being on the power play — that’s something I’ve never done before in my life,” he said. “Once you get there, you get more confident. I’m still uncomfortable in some situations, and I still feel like I obviously need to improve in a lot of situations. I think just being able to get a taste of that has definitely allowed me to build on the side of my game I didn’t quite know I had really. It gives me tons of confidence going into the offseason for what I can do offensively. Not points-wise, just playmaking ability.”
The irony is we may not know how much responsibility Faber could have taken in his rookie year had Spurgeon not been limited to 16 games. Faber was thrust into No. 1 defenseman duty in every facet.
“From just training with him (last) summer, you knew he has something special — just watching him mature throughout the year,” Spurgeon said. “He’s already a mature man. He plays the game at such a high level. His skating is awesome. It’s one of his main talents that lets him play the way he does. But just the confidence he had to go from a guy who had never quarterbacked a power play and then to see how calmly he went into that position, and then that offensive side that I think we could all see, whether it was during summer skates or his flashes come out — it was awesome to see from a teammate’s perspective.”
Big summer for Zuccarello
Zuccarello is missing the playoffs for only the second time in his career and called it “an empty feeling.”
“What to do now, who’s going to tell us what to do every day and it’s not a good feeling, but sometimes good things happen after something bad happens,” he said. “So hopefully next year’s going to be way better. But I don’t think anyone enjoys this feeling. Even you guys, what are you going to do?”
It’ll be a big summer for Zuccarello, 36, as he’ll represent Norway in the World Championship and then an Olympic qualifier in late August in Denmark. If Norway wins its group, it’ll take part in the 2026 Winter Games. Zuccarello joked that he hopes it’s his last time playing in the worlds because he doesn’t enjoy missing the playoffs.
Zuccarello says this is an “empty feeling,” like “what do you do now?”
He’ll play in the worlds “if I make the team” with Norway. 😀 Big summer for his country as they attempt in late August to qualify for the 2026 Olympics pic.twitter.com/TNPoTGyuJF
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) April 19, 2024
Zuccarello got off to a solid start this past season, but all this skating, especially in August and early September, could help him because it’s hard to find ice in Norway in the summertime. Zuccarello will also hold his annual charity game in August in Lillehammer as a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the 1994 Olympics held there. The Norwegian League All-Star team will play his All-Star team made up of NHLers, including some Wild teammates.
It’ll be interesting to watch Zuccarello’s five-on-five play next season because he didn’t produce well when separated from Kaprizov.
Thirty-three of his 63 points this season came on the power play.
At five-on-five, Zuccarello scored six goals and 22 assists. Twenty-one of those 28 five-on-five points came with Kaprizov on the ice in 497 minutes, 37 seconds together. But without Kaprizov, in 439 minutes of five-on-five play, Zuccarello scored just two goals and five assists.
Still, Zuccarello doesn’t blame Hynes for keeping him apart from Kaprizov after the Kaprizov-Eriksson Ek-Boldy line erupted.
“We got a really good first line,” Zuccarello, who snapped a 20-game goal drought in the season finale, said. “Played well for a lot of this final stretch here. That’s just how it goes. In terms of my play, it’s probably, I don’t even know which season it is, if it’s 14 or 15, (every year) I tell myself I need to shoot more. So maybe the 16th season I’ll maybe shoot a little bit more sometimes.
“I mean a little too on and off for me as well. Some good stretches kind of following the team a little bit. So hopefully next year a little bit more consistent and maybe score a couple more goals to help the team win some games that we lost this year.”
(Photo of Kirill Kaprizov: Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)
