There continues to be a lack of meaningful progress in contract talks with pending UFA superstar Kirill Kaprizov or restricted free agent center Marco Rossi, Wild general manager Bill Guerin told RG’s James Murphy in an interview published Wednesday.
That said, it’s not a point of stress for the front office, Guerin said. “The talks have been pretty consistent, and I’ve been happy with them.. I don’t like to put really anything out in the public when it comes to negotiations, but no, there’s no real updates.”
There’s obviously less urgency on Kaprizov’s deal – they still have nearly 11 months before he can hit the open market. Going into the regular season without an agreement with Rossi or an appropriate trade return for his rights, however, leaves them without one of just three 20-goal scorers from last season with no surefire insurance policy.
To that end, there had been speculation that Rossi wasn’t considering any contract offers from Minnesota until Kaprizov’s situation was settled. That statement never made much sense, considering Rossi remains under team control through the 2028-29 season, and Guerin refuted it in the interview.
Even though that isn’t a factor, there’s still an interminable stalemate. Reporting last month indicated Rossi’s camp hadn’t engaged in contract talks with the Wild since June, after which they pivoted to trade discussions only. Whether that’s changed in recent weeks, or if Guerin’s response of consistent talks is nothing more than a platitude, remains unclear.
With trade talks remaining similarly quiet around Rossi at this point in the offseason, a bridge deal is presumably the best way forward for both sides – even if he’s shown some hesitation about leaving himself exposed to a trade to an undesirable destination. A bridge deal should come across in the $4.5MM range annually for the next two seasons, AFP Analytics projects. With nearly $9.5MM in cap space, that wouldn’t be a concern for Minnesota.
It’s likely not worth checking in on either situation until the beginning of training camp, when Rossi’s camp will be more inclined to acquiesce on a bridge deal and Kaprizov will be back in Minnesota.
Rossi should take a one year 7m deal and prove he can play like he did last year again. Then nobody can argue his worth and more teams would be willing to sign him long term at big $$
Wild would never offer that, if for no other reason than to avoid locking themselves into a $7MM qualifying offer
Oh is that how that whole shebang works? Ahh okay makes sense. Sorry for my ignorance of his situation.
Here’s a quick rundown from wiki:
The current team must extend a “qualifying offer” to a restricted free agent to retain negotiating rights to that player. Qualifying offers are for one year contracts. The minimum salary for the qualifying offer depends on the player’s prior year salary.
Players who earned less than $660,000 in the previous season must be offered 110 percent of last season’s salary. Players making up to $1 million must be offered 105 percent. Players making over $1 million must be offered 100 percent.
That’s also pretty outdated since the league min hasn’t been under $700K since 2018-19…
The current breakdown (which will change slightly when the new MOU goes into effect in Sep. 2026) is
$775K-$999K: 105% of previous year’s salary, up to $1MM
$1MM+: lesser of 100% of most recent salary or 120% of cap hit
Wow, sure is. Thanks Josh.
I should have known better than to trust wiki 😄
No news, Is bad news for Bill Guerin.
Rossi just needs to go bridge. Produce. He gains more leverage every year his RFA clock ticks closer to UFA.