In October of 2021, Ryan Kennedy from THN wrote about Kirill Kaprizov and how the sky is the limit after signing a 5-year 45-million-dollar contract. Has he reached that now?
A look back in the THN Archive, Kirill Kaprizov: The Sky Is The Limit. Is the Sky still the limit for Kaprizov?THN Archive is an exclusive vault of 2,640 issues and more than 156,000 stories for subscribers, chronicling the complete history of The Hockey News from 1947 until today. Visit THN.com/archive and subscribe today at subscribe.thehockeynews.com
Vol. 75, Issue 05 Kirill Kaprizov, The Sky Is The Limit.
Meeting the media for his first availability since re-signing with the Minnesota Wild, Kaprizov looked chill. The star left winger had endured a protracted negotiation over the summer and had been rewarded with a new five-year pact worth $45 million and heightened expectations after he torched the league with his dazzling play as a 23-year-old rookie.
So, was he feeling the pressure? “No, no, it’s not pressure,” Kaprizov said. “Now it’s easy for me (once) I signed. I just want to play, it’s like, phew, now it’s just hockey.”
Hockey is Kaprizov’s specialty. A wizard with the puck who thinks the offensive side of the game like few others, the creative winger is already staking a claim as the most dynamic player the Wild have ever seen.
There isn’t much competition in an organization that had its early success by playing a defense-oriented team game. Still, the first name that comes to everyone’s mind is Marian Gaborik, the franchise’s first-ever draft pick back in 2000.
The pinnacle of Gaborik’s career came in 2007-08 when the Slovakian stunner potted 42 goals and 83 points, both franchise records that stand to this day (Oct, 2021). Eric Staal did tie the goal mark 10 years later.
Kaprizov, a fifth-round pick in 2015, put up 27 goals and 51 points in 55 games as a rookie during the 2020-21 season. Needless to say, Gaborik’s records are in peril.
Now, Kaprizov has broken Gaborik's single-season goal record with 47 in his sophomore season and shattered Gaborik's 83-point season in 2007-08 with 61 assists and 108 points in 2021-22.
Kaprizov, 26, followed up his impressive 2021-22 season with another 40-goal season in 2022-23 which also saw him record 75 points in 67 games. After a bit of a slow start to this year, Kaprizov has four goals and 12 points in 12 games and is on pace for another great season for the Wild, proving the sky is still the limit for the NHL superstar.