Daily Faceoff Live: Kaprizov hits 200 point milestone
On Monday’s edition of Daily Faceoff Live; Tyler Yaremchuk and Mike McKenna discussed Minnesota Wild sensation Kirill Kaprizov reaching the 200-point milestone and how he has become the fourth fastest active player to hit that milestone.
Tyler Yaremchuk: To the positive side of what we saw this weekend how about Kirill Kaprizov? The fourth fastest active player to hit that mark. You also look at that and see he did it faster than Connor McDavid which is crazy considering McDavid’s NHL start to his career as well. But Kaprizov has established himself as one of the premier scorers and point producers in the NHL. It’s crazy to think he was drafted way back in 2015 and it took him five years to make his NHL debut. Mike, there’s no debating that Kaprizov is the straw that stirs the drink for the Wild and lately things have been going pretty well for that team as well.
Mike McKenna: Yeah, I think it makes Billy Guerin pretty happy as well. You remember after Kaprizov’s rookie season, he had a really good year, 51 points 55 games and 27 goals. But he signs a five-year deal at $9 million and that raised eyebrows, everyone goes “well can he really keep this up” Guerin knew what he was doing because Kaprizov has been even better than that. He is one of the top players I take clips from and show our squirts how you compete for pucks. He’s 5-foot-10 but he plays 6-foot-3, he’s so heavy on the puck, he competes hard, he goes right to the net, follows his own rebounds, has all these little intangibles and then you mix that in with the fact he’s got great hands and great moves. He’s got a really diverse skill set and the key point is the duo between Zuccarello and Kaprizov. They’re second-best points-wise behind only McDavid and Draisaitl and have been on the ice for 28 goals for that they have had a point on. There you go, they’re a magic combination and I’m sure that Wild locker rooms know just how important it is to have Zuccarello feeding the puck to Kaprizov.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Love the point you bring up on Kaprizov’s compete level. I think when he signed that deal, a lot of the criticism came from people who maybe didn’t watch him play a lot of hockey, and just saw “oh Russian scorer” but you watch him and man this guy plays hard. Love your line about him playing five inches bigger than he is. The Minnesota Wild have now rattled off five straight victories and are 8-2-0 in their last ten games.
You can watch the full episode here…