RUSSO on FOTR | Kirill Kaprizov’s NHL future uncertain after rejecting Minnesota Wild contract offer

RUSSO on FOTR | Kirill Kaprizov’s NHL future uncertain after rejecting Minnesota Wild contract offer

uh with real Capri off obviously dominating conversation a lot of times with contract negotiations or lack thereof just where do we feel it is right now um and did anything that was said in Carrill’s presser or Billy’s presser um make you feel any different different direction about it? Um, I mean, no. Uh, you know, I I you know, I I think one disconcerting thing is that, you know, his agent Paul Theopanis, uh, came to the first practice and they sat with Matt Cells for two hours and clearly nothing has come out of that. So, um, you know, that that’s a bit concerning. Not that we know everything that’s going on. Um, obviously, uh, you know, uh, Paul’s not talking and Billy has made it, you know, crystal clear in his presser that he’s not going to be giving, you know, constant updates. But everything that you and I have have really, uh, looked at here in the last, uh, week, week and a half since we, you know, knew that this was all going on and that he turned down this this monster contract is that there’s no negotiations going on uh, right now. and and um you know I don’t think the Wild are just going to up their offer like like like there just comes a point too like do you want to be here or not and and if you don’t want to be here at 16 million like suddenly you’re going to want to be here at 16 and a half 17 and a half 18 like you’re just going to keep on offering money um you know I I mean maybe at some point they have to do that but right now I don’t think the Wild are inclined to do that. So, um, you know, we’ll see. We’ll see where this goes. Um, you know, I don’t know what’s next. I mean, you know, do you have to just have a, you know, heartto-heart with Carrill at some point if you’re Billy Garren and hope that, you know, and without his agent there or and and find out point blank like what’s it going to take to get it done or is this it? Like, and if it is, then what’s the next step? Do you start talking trades and things like that? So, I don’t expect that we’re going to get, you know, blowby blow play by plays. Um, but right now, I I don’t think that um anything has really happened since um since day one of camp when we both saw Paul theis in the crowd talking to Matt Cells. And I’m speaking from a place of ignorance, so tell me if I’m crazy here, but that feels positive to me. Like, that almost gave me the vibes from the outside looking in of, oh, Carilla is not happy that this got leaked. He doesn’t like the direction of this. And now we’ve got a random spot appearance from Theophonis at practice. Is that common or like what’s your read on just him showing up in that capacity? No, it’s it’s not common. Uh but he seems to show up all the time. Uh throughout the year, you know, four or five times a year we’ll see him. Last year at the end of the season, uh you know, he was just standing in the middle of the press box watching the game. It might have even been Carrill’s game uh first game back uh with the team with three games left in the season. and uh he just suddenly was there. Um so yeah, I think that Joe and I both thought that that would probably be a positive thing, especially when we saw him and and and Matt Cell’s having a really affable conversation for a couple hours in the stands. I mean, you know, I don’t think they were talking about each other’s golf games and things like that, but you know, nothing has seemed to have happened since then and I don’t think it moved any it moved anything along. So maybe he just showed up at practice um because he knew that Carell was talking for the first time that day and maybe you know lend a little support, give him some advice on how to handle things, maybe you know tell Carell to sort of which he did uh you know punt um all questions about contract negotiations to him the agent uh which is difficult because he has not responded to comments uh to Joe and myself since this process began. And my last thing on the Capri off front, just to make sure, I just don’t know from your end. What do you guys think the deadline is, quote unquote, where like you should actually be worried if a deal is not done? I don’t know. I’m worried right now, Joe. I mean, I don’t know about you. I mean, you know, I would say opening night like if if if Carrilla is really willing to risk injury and not not bank 128 million guaranteed. I think I don’t know what’s next because I really don’t think the Wild are just going to keep on upping its offer. Um, you know, again, I I think that Bill and and you know, if I were them, I would talk to him about a short shorter term deal, but he’s given no indication that he has any interest in a shorter term deal. In fact, I get the indication that he does want a longer term deal. So, um I don’t know where this goes. Um but, you know, I’d be concerned, but I’m also the one that I was the beatw writer here when Marian Gabrick was here and and we saw how that went. Um and I’ll be interested. We’re, you know, both Joe and I are getting an opportunity with other reporters to talk to Craig Leupold on Thursday night. But Craig was the owner at that point, so I want to ask him if he’s worried about Marian Gabbert 2.0. Um, you know, and and when I when I say that, I’m talking about injuries. So, I don’t know. What do you think, Joe? Yeah. I, you know, Carrill had said like, and he was himself in that press conference and he was, you know, jovial and affable more than I thought he would be considering the circumstance. He said, “We have a lot of time, which I think to him maybe he considers a lot of time, but I don’t think for the Wild Brass or Wild fans, they feel, hey, it’s 2025 still, 2026, my contract’s up.” So I think there has to be some sort of line in the sand of of a decision right left or right like do you want to stay? Can we still push this forward in negotiations or is this just you saying I don’t want to stay and then we can find plan B of like okay let’s find a place uh that it’s not ideal but find a place to trade you or find a place to get something for you. I don’t think they can afford to go into the season and risk getting any injury both you know his point of view and for the Wild’s point of view like you mentioned Marian Gabri. So, um, that would be my concern level if he’s ready to punt it down the road. It’s easy for him to say, but then like the team has to figure out like there’s no plan for them that doesn’t include Koko Capri off. And if you’re going to trade Koko Capri off, very rarely you win that trade. I don’t think you win that trade because your best player in that trade will be Koko Capri off. So, um, not not in a league where everybody has no move but no trade protection, you know, like, you know, yeah, I mean, there are a lot of teams that would love to trade for Carl Capriop right now. And and to do that, you’d probably have to give up a lot of money, which means significantly good players, but all these players have no move and no trade. They’re not just going to, you know, at the beginning of the season wave that to come to Minnesota right now. You know, one thing I wanted to, you know, point out too that I think is a little naive on on that’s being speculated about there is that Carl Caprio’s waiting for Conor McDavid to sign to set the market. No, I mean, by all conversations, if if Conor McDavid resigns in Edmonton, he’s going to do the Oilers a solid and make sure because his priority is winning that it’s going to be at a really quality price, teamfriendly price. you know, we’re talking 15 15 and a half 16 million. So, like that is extremely public. It it’s obviously speculatory, but this is based on um you know, people knowing Connor and knowing his agent and things like that. So, like that is not what’s going on here. It might as a whole with all these group threes maybe somebody’s waiting for the first to go, but that is like trust me that is not what’s going on here. And I think we had a conversation earlier today, Mike. What’s interesting about the Krill stuff situation is the Wild kind of got hurt by the new CBA in a sense where I think you wrote at the drafts which we all thought at the time that they have this big advantage to be off for eight years versus six years if the CBA came in in July but now like as you could probably explain like didn’t do them any good any solids here. No, absolutely. Last CBA screwed him with the cap recapture and this one absolutely did too. um you know they they in the new CBA um the max term limit another team can sign somebody is six years. Well that will not go into effect of all they have different implementation plans for different facets of the thing. A batch of things start now. A lot of things start July 1 and a lot of things start next September 16, 2026 when the official beginning of the collective bargaining agreement starts. Of course, the term limits, which would have been a huge coup for the Wild, um does not start until September 16, 2026. So, next July 1, he will still be allowed to sign with seven years for another team or if traded, eight years with another team. That does not help the Wild. The other thing that has really hurt the Wild here is for the first time ever, they announce three straight years of the cap number. That has never happened before. usually 5 days before free agency usually is when we know what the official cap number is going to be for the following year. So everybody knows it’s starting in 26 27 it’s going to be 104 and 2728 it’s going to be 113 and a half. So a lot of these agents are looking and and you know and I’m sure Paulis is looking and be like 16 million is not what he would get next summer on a seven-year deal and it’s not what he would get if it was two three years from now. So um so the wild as usual really um the the new collective bargaining agreement really did not help them. And how convinced are we that camping whether light or heavy is going on? You know I’m not going to make those accusations. I mean, you know, I think that that, uh, you know, Elliot Friedman on his podcast has speculated a lot that maybe that they’re assuming or know that certain teams out there are are floating a a price that they could maybe maybe uh uh pay him in free agency. But a lot of this could be assumptions, too. Just knowing that the cap’s going up and looking at teams out there that might be going after him. very similar to what we did with Marco Rossi this summer and offer sheets is that you know you could figure out what are the teams that could afford it what are teams that could give up compensation and I’m sure that any good agent and we know that Paulis works very hard for his clients is is looking at it and say all right that team could maybe give you this mount that team could maybe give you this amount this team if they make a couple trades or lose a couple players could give you this mount I think that’s uh you know that’s stuff that’s that’s going to happen but it’s not that we know that that’s going to happen I I think a lot of it is just assumption. [Music]

Michael Russo joins Joe Smith to break down all aspects of Kirill Kaprizov’s future after rejecting a contract offer from the Minnesota Wild that would have made him the highest paid player in NHL history as covered on “Fellowship of the Rink” Episode 82 https://youtu.be/JuvFhPA9pQc

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RUSSO on FOTR | Kirill Kaprizov’s NHL future uncertain after rejecting Minnesota Wild contract offer

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