We know the rookie does not have leverage to scare the Wild anymore. As you may remember, the Wild was scared of losing Kaprizov earlier this month when it was reported that the top rookie had a contract in place in the Kontinental Hockey League. But that leverage isn't there anymore with the 2021-22 KHL season kicking off on Sept. 1. Kaprizov's camp was more inclined to take a short-term deal to walk to unrestricted free agency. He might therefore be forced to make compromises.
‘'I will say this, we are at a point where we feel we're being extremely fair,» GM Bill Guerin told Russo. «How far apart are we? Not very, but sometimes those can be the things that take a while. I mean, that's the way I see it. You could ask (agent) Paul (Theofanous) or Kirill and they might say something very different.
