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Kirill Kaprizov of the Minnesota Wild celebrates his power-play goal against the Vegas Golden Knights in the second period of Game Three of the First Round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images)

Wild 2024-25 Report Cards: Kirill Kaprizov

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers
By Mariah E. Stark | Last updated Jul 23, 2025 9:45 AM ET

The NHL offseason continues to move forward, but the start of the new season is still a couple of months away. While the new season inches closer, there’s still time to look back at this past season, and several Minnesota Wild players still need their grade reports. It’s come down to the final report for the forwards, and that means Kirill Kaprizov.

He had a very rough season when it came to injuries, like a few of his teammates, including Joel Eriksson Ek, but he battled his way through as only Kaprizov can. He proved once again that he is one of the best scorers in the NHL, and even though he wasn’t able to achieve those numbers this season, he has the ability to do so when healthy. In this article, we’ll look at his regular season efforts plus his postseason performance and determine an overall grade, starting with his regular season stats.

Kaprizov Grinds Through

After seeing Kaprizov start the season off with a bang, it was crushing to see it all come crashing down due to an injury that kept bothering him and eventually required surgery to hopefully fix permanently. He was on track to win his first-ever Hart Trophy and be the first on the Wild to achieve such an award; however, the injury sidelined that hope almost immediately after everyone started seeing him as a candidate.

Unfortunately for Kaprizov and Wild fans alike, it wasn’t meant to be, but he still managed to produce a respective season despite the injury. He played in exactly half the season at 41 games, and he still scored 25 goals, plus assisted on 31 others for 56 points, and 14 of those were on the power play. Five of those goals were game winners, and he recorded 145 shots on goal.

Even in his shortened season Kaprizov was able to throw his body around 16 times which may seem low but it’s not his job to be physical except when protecting the puck. He blocked 17 shots and had 59 giveaways which is too many but expected with how much he handles the puck. While he did have a high number of giveaways he also accumulated 12 takeaways a number that could have and should have been higher.

Kaprizov Shines in Postseason

He played in just four regular-season games before the start of the playoffs in his return to the lineup following his surgery. That’s not much time to adjust after being out almost three months, but he barely showed any rust, and it was definitely gone in the postseason. He wasn’t completely the same as he was at the beginning of the season, but he was close, and he led the team through the six games of their playoff stint.

Kaprizov registered points in five of the six games, which included five goals and four assists for a total of nine points. The only game he was stopped was their sixth and final game that eliminated them from the postseason. As far as his defensive skills go, he didn’t back off on the hits either as he recorded six and an impressive 10 blocked shots.

He did manage his turnovers better with seven in six games played, and hopefully he can continue to do that this coming season. His takeaways weren’t as good as they could’ve been with just one in the entire postseason, and that’s one area he’ll need to improve for next season if he can.

Kaprizov’s Overall Grade

Without knowing Kaprizov’s injury issues this season, looking at his stats for the season, most would assume something was wrong. He’s not the type of player to put up 56 points, even though that is respectable for many NHL players. He’s a different level and therefore has higher expectations that he can fulfill when healthy.

Kaprizov’s grade for the regular season is an A because of everything he went through with the injury, but also the way he started the season, and then ended it with a vengeance. His recovery was slow not only to him but to fans, and while it seemed long, it was necessary to ensure he came back at full strength. He ground through the season as best he could with the injury, and then after he returned, it wasn’t easy, but he proved how critical he is to the team.

His postseason grade was also an A. He did everything he could despite still recovering from surgery and being out almost three months. Neither of his grades were higher because there’s always room to improve, even if it’s just slightly. However, his overall grade for the season is a high A, almost an A+, but again, he has some things to fix going into this coming season. It also wasn’t lower because of all the effort he went through and the numbers he put up. Hopefully, this next season, he’ll be able to stay healthy and show his true full-season potential.