ST. PAUL, Minn. – Craig Leipold smiles as he surveys the scene from his center-ice suite at a bustling Xcel Energy Center for a preseason game against the lowly Chicago Blackhawks.The Minnesota Wild owner has just taken his private plane back from the NHL’s Board of Governors meeting in New York, where commissioner Gary Bettman proudly told owners many of the league’s franchises are worth around $2 billion.
The franchises are just golden,” Leipold says.
The Wild owner says his season-ticket renewals are over 90 percent, corporate sponsorships are at a new high and club seats have been sold out since he bought the team 18 years ago.
It’s the business portfolio of a Stanley Cup contender, even if the Wild have been anything but.
They’ve been around for 24 years but have had only one trip beyond the second round of the playoffs. And that was 21 years ago. They missed the playoffs last year and have won only two playoff rounds in the past decade. Yet the hockey-crazed state keeps comi
Fans seemed to accept there would be short-term pain — dead cap hits as high as $14.7 million last season and this upcoming one. They’d compete, as Guerin put it, with “one hand tied behind our backs.”
But the Wild decision-makers didn’t anticipate how difficult it would be to ascend to true contender status without a full financial arsenal. That’s when Leipold, for the first time as an owner, told his GM that it was time to come up with a “five-year plan” to win a Cup.
This season, Leipold says, he expects a playoff team. But he also wants to identify which players are going to be part of a Wild team that’s going to deliver the State of Hockey a Stanley Cup.
The clock is ticking and the Wild have a lot to prove. To Kaprizov. To other free agents. To their fans, Leipold admits.
The NBA’s Timberwolves are coming off a Western Conference finals appearance. The Vikings are 5-0. The Wild can’t assume fans will stick with them forever.
“It’s about becoming a true contender,” Guerin says. “I don’t want to try to fool anybody. I don’t think we’ve been serious contenders in the past. I just don’t. And we’re trying to get there.”
But when Kaprizov arrived, with his limited English at the time, he made clear his motivation.
What can I do to help us win hockey games?
“He’s all about winning,” former teammate Alex Goligoski says. “I don’t think he has a selfish bone in his body. … He’ll do whatever it takes to win.”
Which means Kaprisov’s buy-in on “the plan” is crucial to its success.
Before arriving in the NHL, Kaprizov was long considered the best player not in the league. He was a KHL highlight machine who scored nothing but big goals. The youngest player in KHL history to reach the 100-goal mark. Five consecutive KHL All-Star Games. League leader in goal-scoring twice. A championship.
Internationally, he led the 2017 world juniors in goals and was named the tournament’s best forward. Then he led the 2018 Winter Olympics in goals, including the “Golden Goal” in overtime for the Olympic Athletes of Russia.
With the Wild, he has been everything fans imagined he could be during the five-plus years the franchise waited for him.
Kaprizov scored a breakaway goal in OT to cap a three-point game in his NHL debut in January 2021, and it was obvious he was already the first bona fide superstar in franchise history.
He went on to win the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year and sign the most lucrative contract in NHL history for a player with such little service time (55 games): a five-year, $45 million contract with a $9 million average annual value.
And since? He has rewritten the franchise record book, racking up three consecutive 40-goal seasons and 279 points. His 133 goals the past three years are tied for fifth in the NHL.
But until he signs his next contract, Wild fans and the organization will worry.
Even before last season, when Kaprizov had three years left on his contract, Leipold said his future was constantly on the team’s mind.
Leipold admits it’s still a worry.
“Am I convinced that we can (persuade him to stay)? No,” Leipold says. “Am I convinced that we will have a better offer than anybody else can do in the league? The answer is yes.
“I told you that this five-year plan is not a straight line. He’s the most important piece of our five-year plan. I think I can say that.”
Leipold says when Guerin begins serious talks with Kaprizov and his agent next offseason, the entire “plan” will be communicated to him.
“I’m confident that we have what Kirill is looking for, both in the market and in the team,” Guerin says. “When you look at what we’re building and what we’ve built, there’s a plan for long-term success.
Most players are looking for a chance to win, and not just one time. And I know it’s really important to Kirill, and it should be.”
Guerin says now, heading into a new season, is not the time to flood the 27-year-old star with a bunch of information he doesn’t need. But they have a great relationship.
“He knows what we’re trying to do,” Guerin says. “Nobody would argue with me that he’s our best player. You have to communicate with these guys to let them know what the plan is so they can have a belief because if they don’t believe in it, then they’re not going to want to be here. And that’s not just here, that’s anywhere.”
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