Kaprizov signs entry-level contract with Wild, ineligible for Qualifiers

Kirill Kaprizov signed a two-year, entry-level contract with the Minnesota Wild on Monday, but he is ineligible to play this season.

Kaprizov, a fifth-round pick (No. 135) in the 2015 NHL Draft, led the Kontinental Hockey League with 33 goals and was third with 62 points in 57 games this season. The 23-year-old forward helped Olympics Athletes from Russia win the gold medal at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, scoring nine points (five goals, four assists) in six games.

"I will be honest with you, it feels really good to get this done," Wild general manager Bill Guerin said. "We're excited to have Kirill in the mix. We're working with his agent right now to get the proper visas, things like that. We're going to try to get him here as quickly as possible. Unfortunately he won't be able to play in any games here (in the Stanley Cup Qualifiers) but we're going to get him in the mix and get him around his new teammates as quickly as we can."

The window for Kaprizov to sign with the Wild opened at 12 p.m. ET on Monday (the third day after the NHL/NHLPA Collective Bargaining Agreement went into effect); they had until 5 p.m. ET on Wednesday (the fifth day after CBA went into effect). The NHL and NHL Players' Association ratified a four-year extension to the CBA on Friday. It will carry through at least the 2025-26 season.

This season will count toward Kaprizov's entry-level contract even though he won't be eligible to play during the Qualifiers or Stanley Cup Playoffs, but Kaprizov will participate in training camp (Phase 3 of the NHL Return to Play Plan) and can travel with the Wild to Edmonton on July 26, where the 12 participating Western Conference teams will be located.

"The limited video that I've watched, it was highlights of him scoring goals and what have you," Wild coach Dean Evason said. "But what I was most impressed with was when he went into corners for 50-50 pucks against another guy, he came up with those pucks and if he didn't, he was competing his butt off to do that. His compete level is something that came across very clearly on the video."

Minnesota (35-27-7, .558 points percentage) enters the Qualifiers as the No. 10 seed in the Western Conference. The Wild will play the No. 7 seed, the Vancouver Canucks (36-27-6; .565), in one of eight best-of-5 series, with the winner advancing to the playoffs and the loser having a chance at the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft in the Second Phase of the NHL Draft Lottery on Aug. 10. Game 1 of the Wild-Canucks series will be Aug. 2.

"This guy has been talked about a lot and maybe too much unfairly just because of the length of time it's taken to get him to get over here but that's a credit to him and the type of player he is as well," Wild forward Eric Staal said Tuesday. "It's exciting for him, good young player, I've heard he's a good kid, so those are all positive things."

NHL.com staff writer Pete Jensen contributed to this report