“I think every player would like to play there. But now I came to Ufa and I want to play in Salavat. Now I will play in the KHL by any means, but about NHL It’s too early for me to think. I have to join the team first. This is no longer Novokuznetsk, here is another level. Made by Minnesota? It was unexpected, there were no Russian players there, they hadn’t drafted the Russians in a long time. It was evening, they called me, wrote, congratulated me. I didn’t understand with what. They say, “Minnesota recruited you.” I went online and read. I prepared, okay. It’s under a number they chose, I don’t remember which one. And this year they chose Dmitry Sokolov, with whom we are in the national team. His managers said he was chosen because he played in international tournaments with Kaprizov. They were invited to the camp. But the camp is July 7-18 and our training camp has started. I refused. I subscribe to the team on social networks, follow the players, go to their website, watch how they play. At what age do I want to go abroad? To be honest, I’m not guessing. How will I play, how will the opportunity be. But for now it’s here.”

This is how Kirill Kaprizov reacted to the news that Minnesota had drafted him 135th in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft. The measured response of the future Wild star may come as a shock to some: many boys dream of playing in the best league in the world, and for them the news that they have been selected in the NHL draft can leave a lasting impression. But Kaprizov did not attach much importance to this – at that time, the striker, newly transferred from Metallurg Novokuznetsk to Salavat Yulaev, did not spray and did not even think about going overseas. The look of the future Olympic champion was aimed only at gaining a place in one of the strongest teams in the KHL and getting used to life outside Novokuznetsk – the transition to the main team of Ufa was for Kirill the first transfer in his life.

It is worth noting that Minnesota did not represent Kaprizov as a future star of the franchise and did not fill the club social networks with photos of a young hockey player. The savage treated the native of Kuzedeevo like a hockey player, who, although showing great promise, still showed nothing supernatural. If the management staff of NHL clubs had the gift of clairvoyance, the second person after McDavid in the 2015 draft would have been chosen by Kaprizov, not Aikel. But 7 years ago, few could have imagined that Kirill would at some point be among the league’s main stars and be placed in the NHL’s top 10 scorers based on the results of the 21/22 regular season.

The news that Kirill was preferred by Minnesota in Russia did not get excited enough. “Savages” have never been so popular in our country – historically, the Saint Paul club did not pay much attention to Russian hockey players: at different times Sergey Krivokrasov played in Andrey Zyuzin “Wild” and Maxim Sushinsky. , but none of them managed to stay in the team for long and become a local star. And in the draft, the Savages have not chosen our compatriots since 2004.

The situation slowly began to change with the arrival of Chuck Fletcher as general manager. Prior to this, the manager had no experience in this position and worked only as an assistant. But this did not prevent him from immediately making several competent and profitable deals for the club. Fletcher placed a special emphasis on the draft, which selected the future leaders of Minnesota: Eric Howlu, Mikael Granlund, Jason Zucker, Jonas Brodin, and Matt Damba. After that, Fletcher uncovered perhaps the main deal in the history of the Savages and drafted Kaprizov. Moreover, the choice of Cyril was not typical for the Savages, it was due not only to the citizenship of the graduate of Novokuznetsk Metallurg, but also to his size – in those years Minnesota focused on the overall men’s, but the Olympic champion could never boast of greats. dimensions.

Scouts noted our compatriot’s skating, holding the puck and thinking on the field – also highlighting the ability to beat the defender of the 97th point one-on-one. Later, this quality of Kirill was noticed by the head coach of CSKA, Igor Nikitin.

“Kaprizov is a one-on-one hockey player, this is his strongest playing quality”– noted the former coach of the army.

Over time, Minnesota’s management and fans began to realize what kind of diamond would soon fall into their hands. After moving to Salavat, Kaprizov reached a whole new level – no longer the same youthful and promising from Forge: solidity appeared in Kirill’s game, and the coaching staff used him with Linus Omark, who played on the first line. the most important role in the development of young talents. As a result, in the first season after moving to Ufa, our hero scored 42 points in 49 matches and played a strong MFM, where he was above all his opponents.

Then the “Minnesota” began to regularly pay attention to the prospect, hoping for its early arrival, but Kaprizov was in no hurry on the ocean. This is largely why many experts call his career an ideal example of how the path of a great hockey player should develop – after Salavat Kirill signed a contract with CSKA for 3 years, during which time he became the Olympic champion, winning the Gagarin Cup. , twice the best sniper of the regular season of the KHL, the leader of the Russian team.

It took 5 years for Minnesota to wait for the main star in its history – in the 2020/21 season, Kaprizov finally arrived in Saint Paul and immediately conquered not only Minnesota, but the entire NHL. Looks like it’s worth the wait.