How Kaprizov's New Contract Sets Stage For Other Superstars

Kirill Kaprizov signed an NHL record-setting contract with the Minnesota Wild to stick around for eight more years. The deal comes in at $17 million AAV, totaling $136 million. There are two sides to this deal.

The Wild felt like they had to sign Karpizov or the team would be stuck in limbo for many more years and lose a superstar. Unfortunately the AAV had to get that high. For Kaprizov, it is greedy to take that much and still expect to win, but there are a lot of good contracts on the Wild. That isn't the case for many other teams that have to now sign a superstar or star and have this contract to compare it with.

In reality, this contract is higher than what the other high-end players will sign for. Agents will point to this, but teams will fight that it is a unique situation and an overpay. I'm not going to argue with how it's an overpay, but Kaprizov for $17 million AAV with a rising cap is still better than no Kaprizov.

There are seven top forwards this Kaprizov deal is going to impact the most - Connor McDavid, Artemi Panarin, Jack Eichel, Kyle Connor, Adrian Kempe, Martin Necas, and Alex Tuch. I don't believe McDavid will be impacted as much as the others as his goal seems to be winning over money and he is the true player that will set the market. But with his patience, Kaprizov is the player teams and agents can base their negotiations off of now though.

If he wanted, Eichel could get up there in salary due to his age and his contributions, but the Vegas Golden Knights wouldn't let him get as high as $17 million AAV for this contract. Connor is a winger comparable and the Winnipeg Jets will have some money to play with, but the Jets and Connor also have to compare internally with Connor Hellebuyck and Mark Scheifele signed at $8.5 million AAV, although it will be a three year gap. Connor around $13 million AAV seems right.

Panarin won't be getting an eight-year deal, so his AAV likely won't get too much higher than it currently is at $11.6 million as he's about to turn 34 years old. As for Kempe and Necas, their cap hits were probably going to sit around $9.5-$10 million AAV, but those numbers should now climb to closer to $11 million AAV, especially for the Colorado Avalanche with Necas seeing Mikko Rantanen's great number in comparison to Kaprizov and hitting the panic button.

The Buffalo Sabres will have to pay Tuch to stick around, but this Kaprizov contract pushes his number higher as well, even if the team got an absolute steal on Tage Thompson a couple of years ago at $7.14 million AAV.

This Kaprizov contract will make waves through the NHL, but it will be interesting to see how much as GMs will fight back giving such high a contract without assurances the cap is going to skyrocket and just how difficult it is to win with that much money being given to one player.