Can the Wild find depth scoring with Kaprizov’s new contract? 

When the Minnesota Wild signed star winger Kirill Kaprizov to a record-breaking eight-year contract extension just a couple of weeks ago, the collective sigh of relief from the Twin Cities could be heard around the hockey world.

The franchise averted the possibility of losing its best homegrown star in ages for nothing in free agency and locked in the opportunity to build around a perennial Hart Trophy candidate.

The challenge now is finding the right players to provide secondary scoring behind Kaprizov, a problem that’s looking more and more real based on the early results this season.

On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by former NHL video coach Steve Peters to discuss why the Wild had to pay whatever it took to retain Kaprizov.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Kirill Kaprizov signs that big extension, and everyone goes, “he’s setting the market.” What ends up happening is McDavid takes less money, and Hutson takes less money apparently. Then a bunch of fan bases are sitting there going, “Well, why was Kaprizov so greedy? Why did the Wild pay him?” But I think if you were to watch this team on the ice this year, you see why the Wild at the end of the day decided they had to give this guy his money.

Steve Peters: Without question he’s been their best player, and arguably right now he’s one of those guys you’d have to say is the MVP three or four games into the season, maybe a shade early. But when you look at the Minnesota Wild and what they’ve done, it’s their top end guys. It’s Boldy, Rossi and Kaprizov. They’ve got nine goals, and the rest of the forwards have three, and Ryan Hartman’s got two of them.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…