Kirill Kaprizov’s opening stretch this season has landed him in rare air.
The Minnesota Wild star scored his 11th goal in 10 games Tuesday against the Edmonton Oilers, matching the most goals any active NHL player has ever scored through the first 10 games of a season. That puts Kaprizov in a small club with Connor McDavid, David Pastrnak and Nikita Kucherov.
McDavid did it in 2022-23, Pastrnak in 2019-20 and Kucherov in 2017-18. That’s the entire list among active players, and Kaprizov has now joined them with one of the most blistering starts the league has seen.
Those names come with some serious weight. McDavid went on to score 64 goals and pile up 153 points in 2022-23, taking home the Hart Trophy, Art Ross Trophy and Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy.
Pastrnak finished his 2019-20 season with 48 goals in 70 games and shared the Rocket Richard Trophy with Alex Ovechkin. Kucherov scored 39 goals that year.
Kaprizov’s night also pushed him higher on a Wild franchise leaderboard.
By factoring into the opening goal, he picked up his 74th career point on a game-opening goal, moving past Pierre-Marc Bouchard for third place in franchise history. Only Mikko Koivu, who leads the team with 121, and Marian Gaborik, who is second with 79, sit ahead of him now.
That leaves Kaprizov five points shy of tying Gaborik for second on the Wild’s all-time list in that category.
Even with the season still in its early stages, Kaprizov has already stacked up another milestone on top of another milestone. Ten games in, he’s not just scoring - he’s chasing history.
In Other News...
Wild Keep Getting Linked To A Trade Fans Will Obsess Over
The trade buzz around Dylan Larkin keeps growing, and Minnesota remains the team most tied to the situation. The 30-year-old Detroit center has requested a move, and the possibility of a deal has become a legitimate talking point around the league, with the Wild sitting right at the center of it because of his reported preference to land there.
Detroit, though, is not expected to let this go cheaply. The Red Wings are said to be looking for a premier return, and Larkins no-trade clause has helped complicate every layer of the discussion. For Minnesota, the intrigue is obvious: this is the kind of name that can alter a roster conversation in a hurry, even if the path to actually getting him remains tangled. [Read more 🡒]
Wild Fans Just Got A Painful Reminder Of That Marat Khusnutdinov Trade
Marat Khusnutdinov is already settling in with the Bruins, and Boston has moved quickly to make sure he stays a while. The forward, whom the Bruins picked up from the Wild at the 2025 trade deadline, has been extended on a three-year deal after carving out a role as a middle-six winger, a reminder that his transition to North America is starting to pay off in a real way for his new team.
For Minnesota, the update adds another layer to a deadline deal that already carried some long-term curiosity. Khusnutdinov was a second-round pick by the Wild in 2020 and had only arrived in North America midway through the 2023-24 season before getting moved, so there was always a sense that his next contract would say something about the value he was capable of reaching. Now that Boston has locked him in, Wild fans are left looking back at what went out the door and wondering how the trade will age from here. [Read more 🡒]
Wild Face A Franchise Defining Call On Danila Yurov
Danila Yurov has given the Wild exactly the kind of early-season jolt they were hoping to see from a young center trying to take hold in the NHL. Through the first stretch of his sophomore season, he has looked more comfortable in every area, with his scoring ticking up and his work at the dot becoming a real asset rather than just a nice bonus.
That kind of progress is what makes any conversation around his future in Minnesota so complicated. The Wild are trying to measure where they are in their competitive window and what it would take to push the roster closer to contender status, which is why Yurov has surfaced in a theoretical trade discussion built around a proven top-line center. No move has been made, but the very fact that a player with this much promise is part of the conversation says plenty about the franchises next big decision. [Read more 🡒]