I was just sitting here thinking about how boring this summer has been for the Minnesota Wild. Of course, the lack of an off-season contributed to that, but there was something I couldn’t quite put my finger on until today. The past three summers (at least!) have been a little bit TOO exciting surrounding the Wild organization. Let’s do a little stroll down memory lane and remember why boring is good.
Summer 2021
After the weird, shortened hockey season in the bubble, Kirill Kaprizov’s two-year contract expired. Obviously, after Kaprizov won the Calder Trophy and showed off exactly why he’s the biggest steal of any NHL Draft ever, fans and the organization were chomping at the bit to sign him to the longest contract possible.
Except the entire summer drug by without word of a new contract. There was plenty of “will he? Won’t he?” going around about if he was going to re-sign at all. Summer ended and with the hockey season just around the corner, fans started to panic. Had Kaprizov been lured to another team or back to the KHL? People were watching Kirill’s Instagram like a hawk, pointing out when he liked a picture of the team dog and wondering what it meant. Any crumb of a hint was talked about endlessly.
Then, the day before the Wild training camp started for the 2021-22 season, the Wild’s social media posted a video of someone unpacking a Russian nesting doll in a locker with the smallest one being painted like Kaprizov and the internet went wild. Literally.
As it turns out, Kaprizov had planned ahead and had been chilling in Florida because there were still Covid-19 precautions in place and he needed both the vaccines and isolation before he could do anything else. He hopped on a plane and ended up in Minnesota that night with the ink hardly dry on the biggest contract ever for an NHLer going into their sophomore year with the league.
Summer 2022
Once again, Kaprizov found himself in trouble and honestly, because it involves Russia, the details will probably always be a little hazy. Reports coming out of Russia ranged from Kaprizov being wanted for a forged military ID card that he’d supposedly purchased years ago to Kaprizov’s deferment from the Russian army had expired.
It seems that Kaprizov had already tried leaving Russia and been turned away and, along with the Wild’s front office, was understandably freaking out. Two different airlines refused to let him board in Dubai to return to Minnesota.
He spent most of that summer moving around the country to try and figure out how to make his way to the United States. Eventually, he was able to get into Turkey where he waited for his work visa to come through. The Wild actually had to work with the United States government through a few highly-connected lawyers to finally get him out of Russia.
Despite all of the military rumors, it seems like paperwork was what held Kaprizov’s return to America. Apparently, because of the pandemic backlog, many hockey players were playing without the required work visa and because Kaprizov did not have one, that was why he was kept in Russia.
But with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, everything that happened in this saga had an extra layer of urgency. And despite having to leave his parents and brother behind in Russia, Kaprizov wisely chose to spend the summer of 2023 anywhere BUT Russia.
(Flashing back to the current day, Kaprizov posted an un-geotagged picture of him in the wilderness that may or may not be Russia. So it isn’t clear if he is still avoiding it or not.)
Summer 2023
This summer was the first time that Kaprizov was seemingly able to relax and kick back. It was other teammates that were causing problems. Maybe not problems, but there was plenty of discourse surrounding the contracts that Bill Guerin was giving out.
Guerin had already re-signed both Marcus Johanssen and Freddy Gaudreau and fans were up in arms over the terms and the traded players that they wanted signed instead. Then, it was revealed that two players had opted to take the Wild to arbitration because they couldn’t agree on a contract.
One was Brandon Duhaime who, while not a key player, was a fan favorite and people were worried. The salary cap hell was in full effect and there wasn’t much there to pay Duhaime with. Thankfully, Duhaime’s hearing was on the first possible day and went smoothly.
The other and much more worrying player to sign was Filip Gustavsson. Gustavsson had come to the Wild as a mostly unknown goalie and played an elite, Vezina-level year as his contract expired. Everyone knew that he was due a big payday, even though he only had one year as a body of work.
There was plenty of discussion about how much and how long to sign Gustavsson. And while his 2023-24 season was NOT what fans hoped, at the time, his stats were amazing. (If you want to hear more about my thoughts on the goalies during this off-season, click here.)
Thankfully, as Gustavsson was preparing to fly to his arbitration meeting the next day, Guerin and Gustavsson were able to come to an agreement without arbitration. This meant that Wild fans could finally chill out for the rest of the summer.
Summer 2024
Besides a few trades and some awesome signings at the 2024 NHL Draft, the Wild have been quiet. This was to be expected because with one more year of salary cap hell, there isn’t much Guerin can do. The only splashy thing to wait for is an extension for Brock Faber after an amazing rookie year with the Wild. But for now, all Wild fans should breathe a sigh of relief that there is no added drama this summer. So far, at least…
