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The Minnesota Wild have found themselves in a difficult salary cap situation following General Manager Bill Guerin's decision to buy out the remaining years of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter's identical contracts in 2021.
As a result, the Wild faced over $12 million in dead cap space for the 2022-23 season, followed by two consecutive seasons with a dead cap hit of $14,743,588. The good news is that this burden will drop significantly to just $1,666,666 in dead cap space starting on July 1, 2025.
According to Wild team owner Craig Leipold, he'll be ready to open his checkbook once that valuable space opens up, via The New York Times.
“Next July 1 is going to be like Christmas,” Leipold explained. “We’re going to have money available. We’re going to have the resources available to do what we need to do to get back to Wild hockey. And we’re looking forward to that. We look at who could be available next year. You’re going to ask me, who are those players? I won’t tell you.
“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,” he continued. “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.”
Minnesota’s top offensive threat, forward Kirill Kaprizov, is set to become a free agent in the summer of 2026. He’ll be eligible to sign an extension with the Wild next July, coinciding with the freeing up of the previously mentioned cap space.
Leipold is determined to ensure Kaprizov remains in a Wild sweater and has no intention of allowing him play for another NHL team.
“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.”
The pressure is now on Leipold to prove that his franchise, which hasn’t advanced past the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2015, is truly ready to compete for a championship.
Kirill Kaprizov is the most valuable player for the Wild
Selected with the 135th pick in the 2015 NHL Draft, Kirill Kaprizov has become not only Minnesota’s top offensive threat since his NHL debut in 2021b but also one of the most talented players in the league.
In his rookie season during the shortened 2020-21 campaign, Kaprizov was awarded the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie. He has since posted impressive goal totals, scoring 47, 40, and 46 goals over the last three seasons, respectively.
He's under contract for one more season with an AAV of $9 million, a number that will certainly increase the next time he affixes his signature on the dotted line.
