Kirill Kaprizov Is About To Mess Around And Change The Way NHL Contracts Are Signed Forever
Bruce Kluckhohn. Getty Images.Contracts in hockey are still DRASTICALLY less lucrative than they are compared to the NBA or MLB. But over the past 10 years or so, I'd say it's gotten a helluva lot easier for younger players to get rich quick. Even if you just go back one generation ago to the guys like Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. Those are two players who finished out their entry level deals, signed a 5-year bridge deal at $6.3m AAV, and then finally got their massive $10.5m contracts 8 seasons into their NHL career. It wasn't until that 3rd NHL contract that they got to sign that "fuck you" money deal.
Now you look around the league today. Guys like Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews and Jack Eichel. McDavid signed an 8-year, $100m contract right after his ELC expired. Eichel got 8-years at $80m. And then Matthews was smart enough to take some smaller term with a 5-year deal at a little over $11.6m AAV.
The point here being that young stars in the NHL are able to get some big time money early in their careers now, but the teams are able to cover their asses by locking them up long term. Then we get to 2021 Rookie of the Year Kirill Kaprizov. And he's saying fuck all that nonsense.
Kaprizov wants the money, and he also doesn't want to let the Minnesota Wild waste his entire career by locking him into a contract that takes him until he's 32 to be a free agent again. He wants the money and he doesn't want to give up any UFA deals in the process. And if he doesn't get what he wants? Well there's a team in Moscow just waiting to load his locker room stall with millions and millions of under the table money. Your call, Bill Guerin.
Granted, not every young star in the league will have the luxury of using the threat of going back to Russia to help them in contract negotiations. I don't think Jack Eichel could have told the Buffalo Sabres that he was going to play for Dynamo unless they gave him that $10m for a 3-4 year bridge deal. But if Kaprizov is able to bend the Wild over his knee, give them a little spanking, and get that short term big money deal he's looking for? Well it wouldn't hurt for some young stars coming up the ranks to at least consider using the threat of the KHL to their advantage. Just think about how much better Eichel's situation would be right now if he only had another season left on his deal with Buffalo instead of still being under contract for another 5.
All I'm saying is that if Kaprizov gets the deal he's looking for here, then a kid like Connor Bedard is about to be filthy stinking rich by the summer of 2032 when he's 27 and already signing his 4th different NHL contract.
