Over the quarter-century that covers the Minnesota Wild's modest existence in the NHL, Kirill Kaprizov has made himself one of a kind. The price of keeping the star left wing hardly compares to what the steep cost of losing him could've been. Kaprizov signed an eight-year, $136 million extension on Tuesday, giving him the richest contract in NHL history and giving a Wild team lacking postseason success an elite player to construct a contender around for the foreseeable future.

“We never wanted to entertain Kirill not being here,” general manager Bill Guerin said. “Everybody in this organization has worked extremely hard the last bunch of years to get to where we are today, and Kirill has been a big part of growing and building this team. If it went the other way, it would've been devastat

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