The Russian Princess Has Landed

Did you miss Mikki? She's back to discuss Kirill Kaprizov's contract extension and how he's the Sidney Crosby of the Wild. She also talks about the latest team injuries and the Minnesota Wild preseason in general. 

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Creators and Guests

Host

HockeySheWrote

Wild Hockey Fan | Cozy Mystery Writer | Mom of 2 | MN Raised | She/Her | Hockey Takes that No One Asked For

What is Her Wild Side Hockey Podcast?

Her Wild Side combines hockey knowledge with a side of vibe checks. The weekly show will have game breakdowns, any topical news about the MN Wild, and fun things going on surrounding Wild's social media. This show aims to be informative while also sparking good conversation about the Wild and hockey in general without having to keep everything serious.

Hello,

welcome to Her Wild Side Hockey Podcast.

This is your hostess, Mikki,

aka HockeySheWrote.

And this is episode forty-eight,

but it's been like ten months since I

recorded an episode.

And let me tell you,

I've been meaning to do this

for like four days.

And I kept writing down notes for what

I wanted to talk about and not doing

it and not doing it.

And this is coming out now.

So it's either gonna come out September,

this evening or tomorrow, October first.

And I'm sure you can all figure out

exactly why I am back.

And that is our Russian princess,

our little cupcake angel,

Kirill Kaprizov is back.

He signed an eight year contract

extension, eight years,

the maximum amount that he possibly could

for seventeen million dollars average

annual yearly thing salary.

It's not his salary, though.

His salary is actually only one million a

year.

Don't ask me anything else about the

numbers.

do not know i mean i read it

all but i also it just kind of

like floop i'm just happy that he is

here and let me just say first of

all if you follow me on twitter which

is where you should be following me

because that's where i spend too much of

my time and uh if you're watching the

video i have my little handle here it

says hockey she wrote um i have been

saying for months that Kaprizov is not

going to leave.

I have been defending this man for months.

And today is the day when I can

finally say, I told you so.

And let me just tell you, Minnesota fans,

I understand.

Sports in this state,

we do not have a great track record.

We, you know,

we get nice things and then they leave

us.

And I get that.

with karil i never got that sense and

i know everyone was concerned but i have

been saying and actually probably more

like years i've been saying for years that

karil was not going to leave he loves

minnesota and this just reaffirms it he

wants to be here he thinks we can

win and he wants to win with this

team and bring the cup back to the

state of hockey and i i'm i'm ecstatic

so

I do need to tell you that I,

in the past month or so,

I have been working a day job as

a lunch lady in a high school cafeteria.

And yes, that is very interesting.

And maybe I'll do an Ask Me Anything

on my Twitter because...

It's interesting.

Anyway,

so as I'm like chopping up my fruits

and veggies this morning,

like getting everything ready for the

little children's lunch,

all of a sudden I get a notification

on my phone.

And actually it was Kevin Weeks' forehead

telling me that Coral Kaprizov had

resigned.

And when I tell you that I...

started jumping up and down.

I went to find the one other Lynch

lady who is a really big wild fan

like I am.

I was literally dancing.

I was a flamboyant Paul Revere bringing

the news of the Kirill Kaprizov contract

extension.

And I was like happier than I've almost

ever been in my entire life.

I cannot even express to you.

I'm texting my entire family group chat.

I'm texting my brother separately.

I am in the slack with other wild

writers when we're talking about it.

And at this point,

I actually can't even get on Twitter

because they block that at the high

school,

which is great for the kids and not

so great for me because I wanted to

read everything that I possibly could.

Anyway, that's how I heard.

That's how I shared the news.

And I have not been able to think

about anything else.

I managed to do my job,

but this has been my whole day.

I haven't watched the full press

conference yet with Kaprizov and Billie G.

But my favorite thing is how it started.

As they walked in and they're getting

settled in their seats, someone was like,

are you excited about this new contract?

And Bill Guerin just said,

he effing better be.

And I love it.

So anyway, honestly,

this contract is better than we could have

imagined.

First of all, it's eight years.

I know people were starting to get a

little like,

maybe he doesn't want to be here for

eight years.

Maybe he doesn't want to lock in.

Maybe he just wants a little bridge deal,

whatever,

which would have been terrible for us

because his price is just going to keep

going up.

He went for eight years.

That is the maximum that he can sign

for.

Seventeen million.

This is the highest.

This is record breaking in the NHL for

total amount and for the average annual

value of this contract.

He also has a full no move clause.

So that can hopefully put everyone's mind

to rest a little bit.

Please.

I do like one of the things that

he said during this press conference is

that he wants to kind of be like

Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin,

guys that stay with the same team for

their whole career.

And that he thought that was pretty fun

is what he said.

And I think that gives us a little

sneak peek into how he sees himself.

I know that he is just here to

play hockey, right?

Like he loves hockey more than anything

else in the entire world.

And the fact that he gets to play

it like this

is amazing and I like that he sees

himself as a franchise player and I know

people are gonna be like well of course

he does are you stupid no I'm not

but what I mean is

you look at someone like Ovechkin or

Crosby and they have,

not only are they an amazing player,

but they are also just a great

representative for their teams.

They've taken on the mantle of being the

face of the franchise.

And they,

they both take that pretty seriously.

I mean, Crosby for sure,

Ovechkin maybe a little less,

so he's not as serious as Sydney.

But knowing that that's kind of how Kirill

sees himself,

I think we're incredibly lucky.

We,

have lucked into having this superstar

franchise player drafted him a hundred and

thirty fifth overall fifth round not even

sure if he would ever even come from

russia that was ten years ago that was

ten years ago this summer that we drafted

him and look at how far we've come

and i kind of feel like i'm gonna

cry i'm not gonna cry i'm not gonna

cry

But he actually, even himself,

talked about how this could be his last

NHL contract.

This brings him up to the age of,

I believe, thirty six or thirty seven.

And while it might be possible that he

could play a little bit after that,

this is his last contract.

You know,

and I think him deciding not only that

he wants to be here,

but that he has enough faith in Minnesota

that we're going to

we're going to win,

that he's willing to spend the whole rest

of his career here, that speaks volumes.

That speaks volumes about him and about

the franchise, the team in general.

The one bad thing about this whole thing

is he has been struggling with an eye

infection.

He was out for a practice or two.

He wasn't at the ringside rally thing on

Saturday.

He didn't play on Sunday.

I don't know if he was supposed to

play on Sunday,

but he didn't play on the game on

Sunday.

And I almost wonder,

do you think that he waited to sign

this contract for a few days because his

eye was just so swollen?

Because it's still very swollen.

It does kind of look like he was

in a fistfight with somebody.

And I can't imagine having to like,

now that's the picture that everyone is

going to see when they like Google his

contract is like him with the eye

infection.

But you know what?

Also, he's not like the flashy superstar.

So on one hand,

he kind of really doesn't care.

And that is why I love him.

He is so genuine.

He was so down to earth.

And he really,

Minnesota has waited a long time.

to have someone like him.

Oh,

and in case you're watching on the video,

I am wearing my I have, of course,

my videos all we're excited on green

screen thing.

I have my top city two by four

shirt on.

And that was kind of the only like

the closest thing I thought I could wear

to celebrate this contract announcement

today.

So

Moving on.

We have,

I believe tonight is the last preseason

game.

They are home against the Winnipeg Jets.

I'm looking it up right now.

You know,

I should do this before I come on,

but that's okay.

Oh no, they have two more away.

They have one more away preseason game and

then one regular season away game before

we get to the home opener.

And that,

I'm not even going to think about that

because I am going to get too excited.

My head is going to explode.

But this is the last home preseason game

tonight against the Winnipeg Jets.

And we did get a couple of updates

on injuries.

So Matt Zuccarello,

who was injured kind of right before the

season,

they just announced that he is going to

be out for seven to eight weeks with

his injury.

So that...

That's not great.

At the same time, that does allow,

I know a lot of people have been

talking about giving like Liam Ogren a

good shot at playing some top line minutes

with Zuki gone,

or at least moving up a little bit

in the lineup.

And I mean,

I feel bad for Zuki because this could

feasibly be his last year.

This is the last year of his contract.

He is like, like, like, like, like, like,

like, like, like, like, like,

No spring chicken.

And while he has been playing amazingly

ever since he came to the wilds and

was like over the hill in terms of

hockey ages,

he's played better hockey than he ever has

basically in his entire life.

So I hope that he's able to come

back from this injury and finish out if

this is his last year, finish out,

you know, an amazing career.

We also have both Nico Sturm,

who was injured during training camp,

and Jonas Brodine,

who was injured just before training camp,

like in captain's practices, I believe,

or something like that right before the

season started.

They are both in practice wearing gray

jerseys, which are the no contact jerseys.

So that's a great sign that that does

not mean imminent return.

But the fact that they are on the

ice with the rest of the team is

always great.

And hopefully we can see them back soon.

Now,

one guy that we have not seen so

far is Jules Eriksson Ek.

You all know that I'm an Ek girly.

That's my boy.

I was so sad.

I went to the game on Sunday against

the Blackhawks,

which I'll tell a little story about that

in a minute here.

I was so looking for it.

I was like, he's got to play.

Ek has got to play.

He has not played in the preseason.

He's got to play, right?

He's got to play.

And he didn't play.

And you know what?

I'm not mad at him.

Jewel, I'm not mad at you.

But I was really looking forward.

I wanted to see him on the ice.

Anyway,

I went to the game against the Chicago

Blackhawks on Sunday.

And of course,

with Chicago being so close and it was

the weekend and everything,

there was a good number of Chicago fans

in the crowd.

There were a couple that sat behind me.

It was like a,

it was like a dad and then kind

of two younger.

It was like a girl and a boy.

I don't know the relationship.

I wasn't,

I didn't really like pay attention to like

them.

Like I didn't look at them really,

but they seemed like young adults.

Um, and the, the kid kept getting so,

he wasn't a kid.

He was a kid like to me, but

He kept getting, like, excited about how,

oh, Chicago's playing so well.

And, like, oh, they're doing so good.

Like, I can't believe it.

And, I mean, you have to remember,

Chicago was basically playing all NHLers.

Like, basically,

their starting lineup for home opener for,

you know, opening night.

And the Wild were actually, I mean,

their top defensive pair were Ziv Buyem,

who was

is an absolute rookie and still struggling

to get his feet under him.

And Zach Bogosian,

who is a veteran who this year,

I mean,

he'll be third pairing or seventh man at

best.

I love Bogosian,

so that's not a bad thing.

But I'm just saying that's kind of his

level right now.

And they were playing our top pairing.

We didn't have any of our top players

on the ice at all.

And the dad, I will give major credit.

This dad who's sitting behind me in the

Blackhawks jersey, he kept saying, yeah,

this is really great.

Chicago's playing really great,

but you have to know that if this

was a regular season game,

we would not be winning.

I heard him say that three or four

times to his son.

And not that I think he needed to

bring him down a few pegs,

but it was just like,

preseason is so weird in that way.

Because

yeah, you,

you have one team who is icing their

starting lineup.

And then the other team who is still

has a bunch of people that they're trying

to kind of feel out, um,

maybe trying out new pairings or like,

you know, they're, they gotta,

they have a fresh goalie in there or,

or we, we had Gustafson in goal,

but then we also had a defensive core

in front of him that was not,

not up to par.

So it's just,

you have these kind of mismatched team and

it's this whole, uh,

that's why preseason is like,

it's fun to watch,

but you can't

You can't set anything by it.

It's great if they win.

It sucks when they lose.

But you can't tell the season from that.

And you really can't tell anything until

you get to the actual regular season and

you have two actual NHL teams playing each

other.

But either way, it was still fun.

I was so happy to be back at

Grand Casino Arena,

which is going to be really weird.

And I'm sure I will slip at some

point and call it XL Energy Center more

than once.

But you know what?

It is what it is.

Now, obviously,

I cannot wait until home opener because

that's when they really go all out with

all of the new stuff for the season.

You know,

they kind of reuse all of last year's

in arena stuff.

The videos and the video packages and like

the before, like the hype video.

I'm very excited to see

the hype video this year,

I still maintain two years ago was the

best one that I've ever seen.

I literally cried in the,

in the arena the first like three or

four times that I saw it because it

just hit me.

Um, that was the one where they were,

uh, they played like born to be wild.

Um,

And it just like hit me in the

feels.

Last year was good too.

Listen,

the Minnesota Wild do amazing work with

the social media team, the in-game optics,

all of the video stuff.

They do amazing.

So it's never bad.

But I just,

I preferred the one two years ago rather

than last year.

So I'm excited to see what this year's

will be and kind of, you know,

make a comparison of all that.

which I'm saying this out loud because

maybe I'll make a note of this.

I should go back and see if I

can find videos of those to compare and

contrast because I'd love to like rewatch

it and see if it stands up to

like how I think it was in my

head.

You know,

I'm going to try and do that.

But this past weekend,

besides going to the game on Sunday,

I also went to the ringside rally on

Saturday.

So that is for season ticket members.

They could sign up.

It was an open practice at Grand Casino

Arena.

And then they had stuff.

They had a little photo station.

And they had games you could play.

And they had face painting for kids.

And some of the concession stands were

open.

The hockey lodge was open.

That kind of stuff.

And then they also had autograph lines,

like autograph sessions.

I was a little bit disappointed this year.

So last year,

I believe it was last year that I

went, the last time I went anyway,

they had one practice.

And then after the practice,

they had one autograph session.

So you watch the practice.

And then while the guys were, you know,

taking showers and getting dressed and

whatever, you went and found your line,

like your table,

because you got like a special wristband.

You went and found like whichever table

you were at and you waited for the

autographs.

Well, this year,

I think maybe it's just because of how

training camp fell.

They still had

two groups to skate because they still had

you know forty some guys in camp whereas

i believe last time they had already let

go most of you know their ptos the

ahl guys they'd kind of you know sent

everyone back off to the juniors and it

was just nhlers so this year they did

two autograph sessions and there were two

practice times but so my line um so

i brought my boyfriend we each had a

different like color wristband so we each

went to two different lines

So we watched the first practice.

I went upstairs.

We like stood in our lines.

I literally stood in my line for like

an hour and a half.

Part of the problem,

and this isn't a problem,

but part of the problem was that kind

of bridging the two practice times was

special teams practice.

So obviously some, you know,

some of the guys from practice A would

wait and then stay on the ice.

And some of the guys from practice B

would come on early and they would do

special teams work and then, you know,

keep going from there.

But so we were just waiting,

we were just waiting and waiting and we

waited for forever.

And we, where we were standing,

we couldn't actually see the ice.

And they said,

you can get out of line and watch,

but like,

they weren't going to save your place.

I mean, at this point, I,

there were like maybe ten people in front

of me.

And so it was like, well,

I don't want to get out of line.

At the same time,

Mike and I were in two different lines.

So it's not like we could like take

turns going to see what was happening on

the ice.

So I literally stood there and waited.

And I will say, it was worth it.

The first autograph session,

I had Nico Sturm and Ziv Buyem came

to the table that I

had the wristband for.

And I mean,

and they were great and it's not their

fault.

And, um,

but it's just the way it all,

the way it all shook out.

Cause then by the time we were done

with that,

they had already started the group B

practice and we watched,

it was like partially over.

And so then we kind of watched a

little bit of it, but it was like,

well,

we better get back in line or else

we're just going to be staying.

Like we'll be, we might miss it.

Um, so it was this whole thing.

And then the, uh, the second time,

then I got Kyle Masters and who was

the other one?

Zach Bogosian,

which here's my hat that they,

I hate when they do the blurry thing.

Anyway, you can kind of see,

this is the hat that they signed.

Um,

they had like pictures that they could

sign, but I just like, you know what?

Hey, I'm wearing a white hat.

Why don't you sign my hat?

Uh, and they liked it actually.

Zeve was like, that's a really cool hat.

I was like, well, thank you so much.

We're like best friends now, obviously.

Um,

But so the ringside rally is great.

And I think that it is a really

fun idea for season ticket members to be

able to get kind of a more in-depth

look at things.

It felt kind of special because, you know,

there's just not as many people there.

I just,

I wish the timing of things had been

a little better.

And I did like that at the same

time,

they also had going on like in the

conference center,

the river center next to Grand Casino

Arena, they had the wild fan fest.

So it was like, no matter what,

you know,

no matter whether you were a season ticket

fan member or not,

or there was something for you to do

this weekend to celebrate hockey season

coming.

And I thought that was a really,

that was a really fun idea.

That was really cool.

And that also kind of came along with,

they released the twenty-fifth anniversary

jersey.

And I'm sure everyone's talked about it.

I'm sure everyone's seen a picture of it

so far.

And so I won't like go too far

into it,

but let me just say that I actually

really love it.

I love that they took the old jersey

and

brought back some of just the original

branding, the original fonts,

really a nice throwback,

but still within the Wild franchise.

Because, you know,

we have the seventy eights that kind of

harken back to the North Stars,

which I do love and they have a

place.

But this was a great way to do

it and stick within just the Wild

franchise.

I also love that they took the yellow

stripe and made it gold.

It's like just gold.

Just enough.

They did just enough to tweak it to

make them look super cool and not lose

that kind of nostalgic feel.

I have my fingers crossed that they'll

have more merch for the twenty fifth

anniversary.

I mean,

I'm sure they have to have something

right.

Because I would love to buy merch,

honestly.

I would love if they used,

like I said,

the original font and the original

branding,

if they used that on some shirts and

sweatshirts.

And the New York Rangers have a really

amazing centennial merchandise line to go

along with the celebration, obviously,

and their centennial jerseys.

And I am so jealous.

They've got like amazing like sweater

cardigans.

They've got like these really nice

jackets.

I am, I'm incredibly jealous.

And I want that, but with wild branding.

And I'm actually wearing it in my hair

right now.

They,

one thing I did find that was really

cool is they have hair clips at the

hockey lodge.

So they came in a pack of two

and they actually, I think it was like,

not bad at all.

I was like, you know what?

This is a really fun way.

I'm always looking for kind of like

more cutesy fun merchandise you know as a

female fan listen sometimes I just I throw

on my oversized jersey and a pair of

jeans and like I'm good to go but

I also like to do something a little

different sometimes and so having like the

hair clips and that kind of stuff amazing

anyway um I have probably rambled long

enough I hope you all missed me and

I hope that you will come back and

continue listening because I am going to

make this a regular thing once again so

um

I love all of you.

You all belong here in the hockey world

with me.

And as I said before,

the best way to reach me is on

Twitter at HockeySheWrote.

And I will see you all next time.