What Makes Kirill Kaprizov Special

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Kirill Kaprizov is about as humble a superstar as they come. The 25-year-old, who was buried in the fifth round of the 2015 NHL Draft having spent time with Kuznetski Medvedi in Russia's Junior Hockey League, might veil from the public and media eye behind a smattering of broken English, but he's unable to hide from the attention around the National Hockey League.
"He's pulling your leg. He knows English just fine," alternate captain Marcus Foligno jokes. "No, he's a special, special player. You look at the pure skills that he has, and the attention to detail he displays on the ice and off, it's pretty special that he's a part of this team."

Kaprizov broke onto the scene with 27 goals and 51 points in a 55-game COVID-19 shortened season during his first year, garnering him the coveted Calder Memorial Trophy as the best rookie that season. He followed it up with a sophomore campaign of 47 goals and 108 points - shattering previous point records in franchise history.
Now in his third year, Kaprizov is on pace for another 30+-goal year, having already set more franchise records including goal streak (seven games), assist streak (nine games) and point streak (14 games).
"When you start winning, when the team starts winning, your game comes easier, you play better, you score more," Kaprizov said.
"Everything starts working well when you do that. That's kind of what's happening right now."
Kaprizov not only scores; he scores when it matters. He has two game-winning goals, nine power-play goals and several tying and/or momentum goals to push his team forward to victory.
"Everyone knows that he has this amazing ability to stickhandle, his edgework, and his general puck handling ability is off the charts," said Head Coach Dean Evason. "But for me, it's his team-first mentality. Yeah, he scores pretty goals and beautiful goals, but he scores more gritty goals than he scores pretty ones. He cares more about that end result than his scoresheet result."
"It's crazy. It's insane. I'm surprised every time, but I'm not surprised anymore, you know what I mean," Jordan Greenway added. "He finds a way. You gotta think the coaches are like, 'stay with Kirill' right? And he still finds a way to get open. It's crazy."
According to Iowa Wild goalie Jesper Wallstedt, in addition to finding time and space, Kaprizov evades goaltenders with a flurry of miscues.
"You think he's going to go backhand, he's telling you with his eyes and movement that he's going to go backhand, and then he pulls up for a wrister," said Wallstedt, who spent time studying Kaprizov's moves during this year's training camp. "He's so good at telling you what he wants you to think he's going to do, and then doing something completely different. That's hard for goaltenders to follow and read for sure."
"That's what makes him special, right?" posed Evason. "He just doesn't score one way. He's not just scoring off the rush. He's not just scoring off the PP. I don't know the stats or whatever, but if you look at his goals a lot of them are scored right around the paint. So, if a guy's willing to do that with the skill set that he has, you score goals like he's scored. Stand in front of the net on the power play. That's not his spot on the power play, but he knows that's a pretty good spot to go score a goal. So, he's committed to go there. That's what makes him special."
OK, so he scores a lot of goals. That's a coveted skillset in this league, without question (just ask Wayne Gretzky or Alex Ovechkin) but, there's even more than the scoring capability for Kaprizov. More than the wins.
"When you see a guy having that much skill, just how hard he works AT those skills, everyone feeds off that," said Wild captain Jared Spurgeon. "You see guys out there shooting pucks after and before practice with him, or working on different skills because he's out there doing that, too.
"That is the one thing that I think separates him apart is, not only does he have those talents, but he works at them every day."
"It's the same work ethic every single night with this guy, like every single night he works like that," adds Evason. "…He drives himself and wants to lead the team by his work ethic and he does that every night and clearly if he does that, he puts himself in a spot to have offensive opportunities. Now his skill set is so great that he'll be able to score."
"I don't know, ask them," Kaprizov said with a sly smile.
What They're Saying Around the League:
"He's a real good player. He skates really well, makes a lot happen." - Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers
"He's a complete player. He moves the puck really well with just the way he skates, and he has a shot that finds its way to the net. He's dangerous in all areas of his game. Like I said, just a really good, complete player, that I'm sure is going to have a lot of success to come." - Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins