Las Vegas – You can bet that not every teammate will be as respectful as Matt Boldy, and when Kirill Kaprizov walks into the locker room to attend his first captain practice this week. All you know is that the ultimate narrow Marcus Foligno will ask Minnesota wild superstar early and often if he has extended his contract and will do everything he can to convince him to sign on the dotted line.
But, since Caprizov returned to Minnesota, Baldie would not join that party.
“It has nothing to do with me,” Boldy said on the NHL media tour on Tuesday. “Although I want him to join our team and will do everything I can to keep him here for eight years, it's not up to me. I didn't speak. So I was sitting there worried about it, and I felt it was a bit of a waste of time.”
The wild will certainly worry about this, which is why the president and general manager of hockey operations Bill Guerin plans to meet Kaprizov in person, which may have happened as early as Tuesday. After spending a weekend at the U.S. Open in New York, Kaprizov returned to the Twins with his agent Paul Theofanous. League sources said Guerin and Theofanous met on Tuesday because the wild was no secret that they were willing to get the edge truck for three times for the three-time 40-goal scorer, and the third-year 40-time goalkeeper signed a five-year, $45 million contract signed on the eve of training camp four years ago.
If Caprizov is willing to sign the highest semester, it is possible if the wild makes an offer in the range of $16 million, which is probably the richest contract in NHL history, league sources said. Wild owner Craig Leipold also said he thought the team was there last week, which would be a breakthrough contract.
“Obviously, we want him to be in Minnesota, sign his contract and lock it up here,” Boldy said. “He was just back in Minnesota today. So, yeah, I'm sure these conversations are going to start happening. And a lot of the time, these conversations are much easier (face to face).
Matt Boldy on Kirill Kaprizov: “We want him to sign a contract in Minnesota and lock it up here,” but he added that it has nothing to do with him, “it doesn't depend on me.” pic.twitter.com/uh2pnlysqg
— Michael Russo (@russohockey) September 9, 2025
Boldy is willing to commit to Minnesota through a seven-year $49 million contract two years ago. Seeing his total points increase from 63 points last season to 69 points to a career-high 73 points, and against the Vegas Golden Cavaliers' five-pointer, 7-point first-round playoff spot, the contract started to look like a bargain. Asked why he believed so much trust in the future of the wilderness and whether he also believed Kaprizov believed he could win a long-term victory in Minnesota, Boldy said: “I love it. Their ability.”
“A lot of times, your GM doesn't score a lot of goals and win Billy's games and cups. I think it's huge to have someone like this. And I think the more you are surrounded by people like this, the bigger your life is, the better your life is.”
After taking considerable steps and a great playoff in the past three years, Boldy hopes to rely more on this season. We have seen him perform well with Kaprizov, but coach John Hynes said he might be in line with Marco Rossi and newcomer Vladimir Tarasenko in training camp on the left. The wild hopes that Detroit Red Wings will definitely not be able to return the final year of his $4.75 million contract by trading.
Boldy, 24, said he had already skated with Tarasenko, 33, this summer, calling him a “talented scorer.”
“The way he shoots the puck is crazy,” Boldy said. “So, yes, it's definitely worth looking forward to. You never really know what's going to happen, or what's going to happen or what's going to go with the Camp's Day 1 and other stuff. We definitely have some people I love to play with. It's not something I really emphasize too much.”
It could be a big year for Boldy, who wanted to be an Olympic athlete after he encountered a 4-country roster that struggled to train last winter and performed well. Even though Guerin served as general manager of the U.S. Hockey Olympics team, Boldy got nothing and didn't see how many incredible players were out of the 44 players at the U.S. Olympics held in Michigan last month.
“I’ll do everything I can to be a part of the team,” Baldie said.
But he said his only focus was to help the field get into the playoffs to win a playoff spot after a good start to the season and to need a final goal from Joel Eriksson Ek in the finale of last year’s finale.
Boldy said it was a feeling of emptiness, and the wild didn’t surpass the first round in a decade and lost to Vegas last season.
“I think we did a great job. … I mean, as a team (from) we played in the first two playoff series.” “So, to play like we did, and not come first, yes. I think we did the changes we had to do. I think everyone played well. Those two overtimes, those stings. You get one of them and you never know what will happen.
And, Boldy personally wants to continue his trajectory to improve consistency and stardom.
“I want to keep improving, keeping the impact bigger every year,” he said. “Part of that is more situations, more inclined to, more looking forward to more. It's a sign of a good player that the coach can look at you in any situation and be confident in you. I'm often stuck, skating with many people on the team, skating with others in Minnesota. I want to turn to my name in the next step – and other situations.
“When you knock down your target, it's an honor to have a minute of puck left. It's an honor. It's a privilege, wanting to be a guy who wants to own it. I guess if I'm on the bench and not there in those situations, it's not too happy.”
(Photo: Steph Chambers/Getty Images)