How Kaprizov’s contract will affect top 2026 NHL free agents
Kirill Kaprizov is the NHL’s richest player – at least, for now.
The Minnesota Wild signed the Russian winger to an eight-year deal with an annual average value of $17 million earlier this week, marking the biggest contract in league history. However, with many top players set to become UFAs next summer, including Connor McDavid, the market has shifted significantly.
On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live with Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton, The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta shared thoughts on where he think contracts to top players, such as Jack Eichel and Adrian Kempe, could go in the near future:
Tyler Yaremchuk: “Kaprizov signed a big deal earlier this week. And all of a sudden, these other fan bases are popping up, going, ‘What does it mean for my guy?’ Does it have an impact on the likes of a Jack Eichel or an Adrian Kempe?”
David Pagnotta: “More on the Kempe side than Eichel. Kaprizov’s deal is going to affect the winger market more than anything. It’s going to place emphasis to a certain extent on a guy like Eichel because of the top-tier talent that some of these guys are. But it’s going to have more of an effect on Kempe, on (Alex Tuch), on Kyle Connor, and so on.
“So the numbers that you started out in the offseason once they were able to start negotiating – a $10 million ask from 2-3 months ago is probably $11million-plus now for some guys. In Kempe’s case, I know the Kings and Kempe’s agent JP Barry spoke the other day. They kind of went back at things to have a conversation. But nothing is close. It sounds like this one, barring a significant kind of turn from Kenny Holland and the Kings right now, looks like he may start the regular season without an extension. But he’s okay with it. It sounds like both sides are okay with that as well. They want to get a deal done. It sounds like this one’s going to take a little bit of time as of today. So I don’t think again, no panic on any side. But this is a player that’s probably going to be hovering around $11 million per year on an AAV if he’s going the full term for a full eight years.
“For Kyle Connor, it’s certainly going to be a leg above that, probably in that $12-13 million range on a full-term contract. With Jack Eichel, things have been relatively slow for the most part. They’ve had back-and-forth conversations and things like that, but the negotiation process specifically has been a little bit slow right now. So we’ll see kind of where that falls in. But Eichel is probably in the $14 million range, which in Vegas is still a nice number. But in Minnesota, in Montreal, in New York, that’s probably the $15.5 to $16 million mark across the board. So we need to get used to these bigger numbers, boys, because they’re going to continue to keep going up.”
You can watch the full episode below:
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