Your Best Player Might Want Out. Enjoy The Season!

There's a chill in the air, and it's at least half metaphorical. Before you know it, the NHL season will be here. For most fans this is a time of hope. For snakebitten fans of some of our most woebegone franchises, it is a sign to start panicking that their time with their beloved superstars may be running out. That's right: It's Agita Season, and it doesn't end until those contract extensions get signed, or don't. Lock up your guy while you still can.

On Wednesday, Frank Seravalli reported that Kirill Kaprizov, a free agent next summer, has turned down a contract extension offer from the Minnesota Wild that would have made for the richest deal in NHL history in both total payout and annual salary: eight years and $128 million. At first glance, it's an eye-popping amount to offer, let alone to turn down. But Kaprizov is a special player, a 40-goal guy in every healthy season. The 28-year-old winger can absolutely be the long-term centerpiece of a contender, though it is possible that no man nor god could drag the Wild past the first round. There's also the need to mentally recalibrate what elite contracts should look like, as the salary cap soars over the next three years, from $88 million last season to as high as $113 million in 2027–28. This is just going to be the going rate for players like Kaprizov.

So, it's certainly telling that it's not enough money to get Kaprizov to sign, or perhaps too many years, or—ominously—that it's being offered by a team he has no intentions of signing with. It could certainly be true that he wants some more AAV, or a shorter term (in order to cash in again in three years, when he's still in his prime and when the cap has skyrocketed). But Minnesota's been down this road before, traumatically. Thirteen years ago, Marian Gaborik's agent said all the right things about a willingness to re-up, and negotiating in good faith, before he took an outright pay cut to sign with the Rangers. Literally the day after the Wild were eliminated from the playoffs last spring, local columnists were invoking Gaborik's name like an ancient curse and declaring Kaprizov Watch officially on.

There's any number of reasons Kaprizov could simply not want to play for the Wild. He might want to be closer to Russia. He might want somewhere a little less sleepy. He might not think they're willing or able to contend for a Cup. He might love Columbus, Ohio, and had always planned to live there someday! (Anything is possible.) There might be nothing the Wild can do to get him to stay, but they've got to figure that out sooner than later—ideally before the season starts and negotiations are put on pause, which would make this year's trade deadline a fascinating and fraught one.

After the report emerged, Wild GM Bill Guerin made a radio appearance that should not exactly inspire confidence in Wild fans.

"We can cut to the chase. Look, I don't know where this stuff comes from," Guerin said about the report. "I know two things: that info didn't come from us, and it didn't come from Kirill's agent."

That's not exactly cutting to the chase. Guerin's comments had the shape of an attack on the report's sourcing, but he chose his words very carefully, and he conspicuously did not dispute the report's accuracy. I would not wish to be a Wild fan these days.

But they can take some solace in the fact that they are not Canucks fans. (Note: This is generally true regardless of fandom and year.) Vancouver has basically been fretting for his entire career—or possibly since Jack Hughes was born in 2001—that all-world defenseman Quinn Hughes would take the first chance he could to flee town to play with his brother, perhaps in New Jersey. But Quinn still has two years left on his contract. This is not, in a normal market, a DEFCON 1 situation just yet. But Vancouver perpetually operates at DEFCON 2 and has a knack for unforced controversies. The current Hughesian brouhaha is entirely self-inflicted.

The Hugheses did not start this! Canucks president Jim Rutherford declared earlier this offseason, basically unprompted, that re-signing Quinn might be impossible. "It may not boil down to money with him," Rutherford said. "He's said before he wants to play with his brothers. That would be partly out of our control."

That, of course, gave reporters the green light to ask the Hughes brothers about it as they arrive at camp and have their first media availability since Rutherford's comments. "[Eventually] I'd love to play with him," Jack said this week, an innocuous and obviously true statement. Then it was time to scamper to Quinn and ask about Jack's comment. "I mean, he’s my brother. What’s he supposed to say[?]" And, of Rutherford, in further comments that are not exactly calming down anxious Canucks fans: "Jim's doing, you know, what he wants to do. I've got a lot of respect for Jim, so I'll just leave it that."

So, do you think they're having a normal one in Vancouver this morning? You know they are not. The Dunbar Lumber Text Line must be blowing up.

Which brings us, inevitably, to Edmonton, where Connor McDavid, the greatest player of his generation, is a year away from free agency for the first time in his career. Pundits are trying to read the tea leaves in every comment McDavid makes. The damn Prime Minister of Canada is out here making jokes about the "crisis" of McDavid remaining unsigned, and asking "if there’s anything we can do in the upcoming budget" to get McDavid to stay an Oiler.

McDavid was first eligible to extend on July 1, and the fact that he hasn't yet has been enough to send Oilers fans spiraling. It was once unthinkable that McDavid, who seems to enjoy his Edmonton life in his serial-killer home, would ever wear another jersey. It still mostly is, but it's becoming a little more thinkable with every day that passes. He will receive a record contract wherever he goes, but he does genuinely want to win a Cup very, very badly, and despite two straight Finals appearances, the Oilers remain heavily flawed and have perhaps hit their ceiling.

"I put everything I have into this and deserve to be paid what I feel is fair," McDavid said earlier this month. "With that being said, there is a salary cap and my only desire is to win, so trying to figure out that balance is tricky."

McDavid hasn't ruled out negotiations continuing into the season, so this isn't full panic mode by any means. It's also something he and his teammates and his front office are going to be asked about every single day until it gets done or doesn't, so the Oilers, with plenty on their plates already, will also have a generational distraction to start the year. But that's life for teams in Agita Season, where no news is bad news.