Image: Mercury News

The Minnesota Wild announced that they have re-signed restricted free agent left-wing Kirill Kaprizov to a five-year contract that carries a $9 million cap hit on Tuesday night, just prior to the start of training camp.

Here’s his microstat card. pic.twitter.com/BfBHQwEmwu

— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) September 21, 2021

The 24-year-old won the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie last season when he earned 27 goals and 51 points in 55 regular-season games and two goals and three points in seven Stanley Cup Playoff games. The Wild fell to the Vegas Golden Knights in seven games during the first round.

There was a rumor that Kaprizov got a big offer from a KHL club but word is that his camp used it to get him a higher cap hit from the Wild.

Kaprizov will have to quarantine after arriving from Russia, so he might miss some training camp time as the Wild, who averaged 3.21 goals-per-game (tied for eighth in the NHL) and scored at a 17.6% rate on the power play (tied for 23rd) last season, will open their camp on Thursday. He averaged 18:18 per game (most among all Wild forwards), including 3:14 on the power play.

Kaprizov’s cap hit is tied for 24th-highest in the NHL.

By Harrison Brown