West Notes: Kaprizov, Forsberg, Hertl

Contract talks for the Wild and RFA winger Kirill Kaprizov hadn’t been going too well but it appears there could be a light at the end of the tunnel.  In an appearance on KFAN (audio link), Michael Russo of The Athletic noted there is a belief that the two sides have basically settled on term with a five-year deal and a price tag somewhere around the $9MM mark.  However, that shouldn’t be taken as a sign that an announcement is imminent as hammering out the year-to-year structure of the deal will still take some time.  A five-year agreement would give Minnesota two extra years of team control; those two seasons at the end of the deal would be the ones where Kaprizov would be eligible for trade protection which undoubtedly will be part of the year-to-year structure discussions.

More from the Western Conference:

• The Predators and winger Filip Forsberg have not yet started discussions on a contract extension, reports Robby Stanley of ESPN 102.5 (Twitter link). The 27-year-old has spent his entire career with Nashville, suiting up in 497 games, many of which have been spent on their top line.  Forsberg has a $6MM cap hit for next season, the final year of his contract and he will undoubtedly be looking for a nice raise to give up a shot at testing the open market next summer.
• The Sharks have a prominent pending unrestricted free agent in center Tomas Hertl and while some teams want to sign their top UFAs early, Kevin Kurz of The Athletic makes the case (subscription link) for both sides to wait it out. By waiting to see if San Jose is able to bounce back this season, GM Doug Wilson can hold off on deciding whether or not the 27-year-old will be his prize trade asset at the trade deadline while Hertl would get a better idea if San Jose is going to be heading for an extended rebuild which is something he may not want to sign up for.  That route does carry some risk but given the uncertainty surrounding the Sharks right now, waiting may be a good idea here.