HotDish
Win it for Hynes
This is so wrong on many levels. Pretty much no matter what Kaprizov was going to have a 1 season ELC. There was a chance that Kaprizov would return to russia for another season. If he came over after another season of the KHL (remember at this team we still had no idea when the NHL would start again while the KHL said they were planning to play in the fall) He would be 24 and still have 1 year of an ELC.He’ll get it done, it’ll likely just be bad. Guerin already bent the knee to the kid when he burned a year of his ELC to have him sit in Russia while the Wild lost in the play-in rounds.
You could argue that Minnesota should just sign Kaprizov in the offseason and get the second ELC year out of him. And true, that would be great for Minnesota. But Kaprizov has leverage here. He could easily say “Sign me for 2019-20, or I’ll go back to Moscow for another year.”
He would be 24 by the time the KHL season ends, meaning his ELC would then be one year. And if he played any NHL games in the 2020-21 season, he would burn that year and become an RFA in Summer 2021 anyway. Minnesota would be in the same spot, but without the benefit of getting even one full ELC season from Kaprizov.
Why the Minnesota Wild May Sign Kirill Kaprizov, Even Though He Cannot Play This Year | Zone Coverage