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Wild Create Cap Space With Kirill Kaprizov Roster Move

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Antonio Losada | Last updated Jan 17, 2025 5:45 AM ET

The Minnesota Wild placed Kirill Kaprizov on long-term injured reserve (LTIR) on Thursday, retroactive to Dec. 23 when he suffered his injury.

The move, while removing the Russian forward from the Wild lineup, will also help the franchise navigate a cap crunch and address their injury-plagued lineup thanks to the cap relief LTIR provides.

Kaprizov, who has been sidelined with a lower-body injury since the NHL’s holiday break, has already met the LTIR minimum of missing 10 games and 24 days, so he's eligible to return as early as Saturday, per the Wild.

His placement on LTIR, however, allows the Wild to exceed the salary cap by Kaprizov's $9 million hit, providing flexibility to call up reinforcements.

Kirill Kaprizov is eligible to return to the #mnwild lineup as early as January 18. https://t.co/AWLYF1v1WW
— Minnesota Wild PR (@mnwildPR) January 16, 2025

According to The Athletic's Michael Russo, the Wild's decision is not indicative of a setback in Kaprizov’s recovery.

"Kaprizov has left Minnesota multiple times in the past three weeks to see specialists," Russo reported. "He has been skating regularly for more than a week, as he did Thursday, so there doesn’t seem to have been any setback."

The 26-year-old winger remains on track to complete his rehab, though he won’t suit up for Saturday’s game against the Nashville Predators or likely Monday’s contest in Colorado, even though he's eligible to play.

Wild general manager and president of hockey operations Bill Guerin has reiterated that the team will prioritize Kaprizov’s complete recovery to avoid further complications instead of rushing him back and risking a setback.

"The thing is that we don’t want him to come back and push through,” Guerin said on Jan. 2. “He could, but it could make something worse. We need him for the long haul. We don’t just need him for a couple games in January."

Johansson was placed on injured reserve along with Kaprizov following an elbow to the jaw sustained Wednesday against Edmonton.

Minnesota’s offense has been inconsistent without Kaprizov, going 6–4 in his absence but the Wild are still second in the Central Division with a 27-14-4 record and 58 total points.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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