Now that we have heard CSKA state publicly that Kirill Kaprizov will not be playing in the KHL this upcoming season Wild fans can breathe a healthy sigh of relief.

As expected it was an all too often played idle threat from the getgo. Now when and for what term and dollars does Kaprizov sign for with the Wild?

That remains to be seen but Bill Guerin has been busy working and negotiating to make things happen for the Wild and their star forward. He never doubted that the CSKA offer was just posturing and never much more than that.

For Kaprizov though, what is he thinking with a team that is completely cap strapped with major dead cap hits over the next four seasons of the Suter/Parise buyouts?

We know Kaprizov needs and deserves to have a legitimate top flight center to really tap into his true potential as a top tier NHL sniper. We don't know if Marco Rossi is ready to take the next step especially given the health issues he faced last season with his well documented COVID-19 scare.

Rossi was expected to compete for a roster spot last season and this year it seems all but a given he will be penciled into the roster along with fellow blue chip prospect Matt Boldy. Boldy has the advantage of being a year ahead of Rossi as well as having played significant pro games last season with the Iowa Wild. Combine that with the experience he gained by being part of the Wild roster for their first round playoff series against Vegas, despite not seeing any game action.

Boldy and Rossi fairly or unfairly must be counted on to contribute this season to offset the aforementioned buyouts of Suter and Parise. I know those two contracts have been discussed ad nauseam pretty much since they were inked. But they are now officially an albatross for the Wild as they are nothing but dead cap space moving forward.

So what is the rest of the plan that Bill Guerin sold to Craig Leipold? Certainly there is more to this than the Wild having no room to make the team better these next four years. We know that Leipold wants nothing more than a winner here in the State of Hockey, so what happens next?

Guerin cannot use the excuse that he has little resources in which to operate, because he made the proposal and sold it to Craig. So far free agency did not yield much in terms of making the Wild a better team on paper.

Alex Goligoski is a very good NHL teammate and has been a very valuable defenseman, but how much better thanbRyan Suter is he, if at all? That may be measured in the locker room better than it is on the ice. The Suter buyout may have been premature but shedding the final "old guard" voice most likely was the overriding factor that sealed Ryan's fate here in Minnesota.

Goligoski on the other hand was clearly overpaid for one season though, and may have a gentleman's deal to sign an extension for much less when that window opens.

The remaining additions Frederick Gaudreau, Dmitry Kulikov, and Jon Merrill all plug holes in the roster left by the departures of Nick Bonino (free agent signed Sharks), Carson Soucy (expansion draft Kraken) and Ian Cole (free agent signed Hurricanes). The jury is out on if they are upgrades overall to the Wild roster but at least they are now tied to the current front office.

We know that Guerin had some different plans when free agency opened but some of those plans did not materialize and he was left to scramble just a bit. That may turn out to be a blessing we will have to wait and see.

Nick Foligno was the big target of Guerin's that got away, and I for one am not the least bit upset that a Foligno brothers reunion is not happening with the Wild this season. Guerin was outbid by Boston and fortunately he did not compromise his structured plan to make it happen. Nick is absolutely a very high caliber leader and his presence is welcomed in any NHL locker room, but the Wild have Marcus who at this point in his career brings more on the ice than does his older brother, and the Wild have some youth that need the opportunity without the elder Foligno to stand in their way.

Excitement is heating up and oh yeah, got my Winter Classic tickets too...

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