Kirill Kaprizov: Rewriting Wild History, One Goal at a Time

When Kirill Kaprizov stepped onto the ice for the time as an NHL player on January 14, 2021, in Los Angeles, he recorded three points (1-2=3) and the game-winning goal in overtime. Quite the NHL debut. Beginners luck? Or was the Minnesota Wild getting a glimpse into the future of a budding superstar it had been searching for since the departure of Mikko Koivu? 396 games and 229 goals later, Kaprizov has proven it was the latter. He went on to win the Calder Memorial Trophy, leading all NHL rookies with 51 points (27-24=51) and 27 goals. Now, six seasons later, Kaprizov will enter the 2026-27 NHL season as the highest paid player in NHL history—not bad for a fifth-round pick from Novokuznetsk, Russia.

As Minnesota’s all-time leading goal scorer, scoring goals is nothing new to Kaprizov. In his final two KHL seasons with CSKA Moskva, Kaprizov led the league in goals, scoring 30 in 2018-19 and followed that with 33 in 2019-20. In the 2018 Olympic Games, Kaprizov ranked T-1st among all skaters with five goals, including the golden goal he scored against Germany in overtime. He was a bona fide goal scorer overseas, and he has now cemented himself as one of the best goal scorers in the world. Since he entered the NHL in the 2020-21 season, Kaprizov ranks fourth among all NHL skaters with 81 power play goals and is T-5th with 230 goals. He finished T-3rd in the NHL last season with 19 power play goals and was T-4th with 45 goals.

Kaprizov has transcended into the superstar the State of Hockey has not only wanted but deserved. The hockey tradition runs deep here in Minnesota, and he is cementing his legacy every time he puts a Wild sweater on. Reaching the 40-goal threshold has only been done by three other players in franchise history (Matt Boldy, Marian Gaborik and Eric Staal), Kaprizov has reached that mark four times. He owns the three highest single-season point totals in franchise history, including a career-high 108 points (47-61=108) during the 2021-22 season. He is in fact the only player in Wild history to eclipse the century mark in a single season. No one in team history has scored more goals or power play goals than Kaprizov, and only Mikko Koivu has more points (205-504=709) than Kaprizov’s 475 points (230-245=475). He has led Minnesota in scoring every year he’s been here, except the 2024-25 season in which he only played 41 games—he finished third with 56 points (25-31=56).

There is still one thing Kaprizov is chasing, however. While he has filled up scoresheets throughout his hockey career, he has also won at every level outside of the NHL. He’s won an Olympic Gold Medal, a KHL Gagarin Cup and a Silver and Bronze Medal at the IIHF World Junior Tournament. The one thing he’s missing is the ultimate prize, a Stanley Cup. He wants that more than anything, not just for himself, but his teammates and this fanbase. After four First Round exits in his first four trips to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Kaprizov finally helped lead Minnesota to a First-Round victory over the Dallas Stars this postseason, its first time advancing to the Second Round since 2015. He tied for the team lead with nine points (2-7=9) in the Dallas series and ranked T-1st on the team in playoff scoring with 15 points (4-11=15). With the addition of Quinn Hughes and the emergence of Matt Boldy and Brock Faber, this feels like a Wild team that is on the cusp of winning it all. Minnesota goes as Kaprizov goes. He isn’t just re-writing Wild history; he’s authoring what could become the greatest chapter this franchise has ever seen.