It was only days ago that Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold humorously joked about having Kirill Kaprizov’s new contract in his coat pocket. Since then, however, the Russian winger is known to have turned down a historic $128 million eight-year deal that would have made him the best-paid player in league history.
Now, Leipold’s latest comments paint a bleaker outlook on where the Kaprizov contract negotiations may be headed.
“I said I wasn’t going to talk about Kirill. I really am serious. There’s nothing to gain. Everything to lose,” he said when quizzed about the situation at a recent presser, per The Athletic.
Prior to the conference, reporters had been warned that the Wild owner was not going to address the Kaprizov situation. Leipold then claimed that him being quiet did not mean he regretted the comments he previously made.
“No I really don’t. I think perhaps things have been misunderstood,” he explained.
Around the same time last year, Leipold had said that no other team would be able to offer the kind of money and term the Wild will can. Earlier this month, he had expressed confidence in the direction in which contract negotiations seemed to be going.
Kaprizov is among a slew of high-profile names who are approaching free agency and have not yet signed extensions. Players like Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, and Kyle Connor are all still not re-signed, and the Wild owner believes the group is waiting for the first domino to fall.
“I think that is normally how these things would work — the first domino goes down, it likely moves the other ones. But, honestly, we’re not involved in any of that. We’ve only got one thing we need to worry about,” he said.
It is currently unclear what the player’s intentions are. Kaprizov may be waiting for the other players to set the market’s tone, or this may simply be an attempt to get more money. Conversely, with rumors circulating about potential tampering from rival teams, it may well be that the 28-year-old simply does not want to stay in Minnesota.
