In collaboration with Upper Deck, The Hockey News will be covering the best active homegrown player for each NHL team. For the Minnesota Wild, it is Kirill Kaprizov.
In collaboration with Upper Deck, The Hockey News will be covering the best active homegrown player for each NHL team. For the Minnesota Wild, it is Kirill Kaprizov.
Kirill Kaprizov is a superstar. Everyone in Minnesota knows this but he wasn't a high pick by the team. He wasn't a first round pick or a second round pick. Nor was he a third or a fourth, he was a fifth round pick by the Wild in the 2015 Draft.
Now, he might go down as one of the best picks in the draft in recent years.
The Wild did not have a fifth round pick in the 2015 draft. The General Manager at the time, Chuck Fletcher, decided to trade a fifth round pick in 2016 to the Boston Bruins for a fifth round pick in the 2015 draft.
Right after the trade the Wild drafted Kaprizov with the 135th pick in the 2015 draft. Boston used the pick the Wild traded to them to draft Cameron Clarke, who never made it out of the ECHL and currently isn't playing hockey anymore.
It took three general managers and six years to get Kaprizov to come to Minnesota. But when he finally did, he made an immediate impact.
In his first NHL game with the Wild, Kaprizov had two assists and scored the overtime-winning goal in his NHL debut, a 4-3 win against the Los Angeles Kings on Jan. 14, 2021.
The 5-foot-11 forward became the first player in NHL history with three points, including an overtime goal, in his first game.
Kaprizov, 27, won the Calder Trophy in his first season which is given to the league's best rookie. The following season Kaprizov scored 47 goals to break the Wild single-season record of 42 previously owned by Marian Gaborik and Eric Staal.
He also became the first player in Wild history to score 100 points in one season (108) and helped the Wild set team records for most wins (53) and points (113) in a single season.
There are only three active NHL players who took fewer games than Kaprizov to record 200 points. Sidney Crosby (142 games), Alex Ovechkin (165 games) and Evgeni Malkin (166 games).
Kaprizov has made the All-Star game every season and has over 300 points in his NHL career. He has 160 goals, 170 assists, and 330 points in 278 games. He ranks fourth all-time in goals, seventh in points, fourth in power-play goals, fifth in game-winning goals, and second in hat tricks in Wild history.
He has the franchise record for most single season goals, assists, points, power-play goals, even-strength goals, game-winning goals, and hat tricks.
He is a superstar and one of the best draft picks ever. Kaprizov is by far and away the best active homegrown player the Wild have drafted.
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