With every day that goes by, the 2023-24 season gets closer and closer as do expectations of the team as a whole, and individually. Every single player will have expectations to live up to from themselves, their teammates, and the fanbase. Besides their captain Jared Spurgeon and their newly signed goaltender Filip Gustavsson, the player with the highest expectations is Kirill Kaprizov.
As the leading scorer, Kaprizov has a lot more on his shoulders than most of his teammates, and while there are obvious expectations to lead the team, there are also other aspects of his game that will have expectations on them. Things like his scoring efforts, his ability on the power play, and even his level of discipline will have watchful eyes. We’ll take a look at the scoring expectations first and move on from there.
Kaprizov’s Scoring Expectations High
Kaprizov set the bar pretty high after his second NHL season when he snagged 108 points and was just three goals shy of 50. Once a player sets a career-high, it’s expected to get broken the next season, unfortunately for Kaprizov, an injury prevented him from beating that 108. Now that the amazement of a Wild player breaking Marián Gáborik’s goal and points record has passed, it’s just expected that Kaprizov will set new records every year. It’s no longer surprising that the Wild have a player of his caliber, it’s just expected that he continues to play at that level.
The key to Kaprizov this season is staying healthy, if he can do that, he should have no problem beating his 108 points from two seasons ago. Everyone will be expecting him to show that next level of his game that it’s clear he has. He consistently finds new ways to be a better player and that’s why he has these expectations from those who watch him play.
Kaprizov Needs to Produce on Power Play
Kaprizov is a natural-born scorer and those are the kinds of players that have to be on the power play. He has a permanent spot on the number one unit and while he’s put up some decent numbers, he’s fallen short of expectations. Obviously, in his first season, he was adjusting to the NHL while also dealing with a pandemic. Although it didn’t stop him from producing, everyone knows he could’ve done more and he showed that the next season.
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However, of his 108 points, only 31 were on the power play. While that’s better than his first season, it’s not enough. They need him to lead that power play unit, and although he had the majority of the man advantage points, he can do more. Out of 252 power-play chances last season, they scored on 54 of them, while the number one team, the Edmonton Oilers had 275 power-play opportunities with 89 goals. Granted the Oilers had more chances but their power play percentage was also 11 percent higher.
Kaprizov should be scoring goals almost non-stop on the man advantage since there’s one less defender to get around. He’ll be expected to take charge of the power play this coming season and use those chances to win games. Had they been able to force goals on the man advantage during last season’s playoffs, they would’ve been closer to getting past the first round.
Kaprizov Has To Play Disciplined
This one may sound a little baffling because Kaprizov isn’t one to lose his composure often, but he did put himself in a precarious position last season. He let Drew Doughty get the best of him and retaliated to the point he was nearly suspended. Watching the replays it’s clear Doughty got away with a lot and it’s obvious why Kaprizov responded, but if he had held out a little longer it’s possible the referees would’ve given Doughty the only penalty and left Kaprizov alone. However, every player reaches a breaking point and that was the one outlier so far in his career that has been questionable, thankfully.
His main issue with discipline is keeping his minor penalties to a minimum, mainly ones like tripping, hooking, and slashing. His penalty minutes aren’t out of control but they are higher than they should be for someone who needs to be on the ice scoring goals. While he won’t back down from a fight, his teammates do try to prevent him from engaging.
Kaprizov played fewer games this past season but his penalty minutes were the highest of his career at 45. That’s nothing compared to his teammate Marcus Foligno who had 97 minutes but it’s still too high of a number. This coming season that number will be expected to be lower, so his offense can be higher. He can’t be sitting in the penalty box from a lazy penalty like tripping or slashing. His penalty minutes need to be like Spurgeon’s, in the low teens, and they’ll be expected to be there this season.
Kaprizov’s Expected To Do Great Things
It’s safe to say Kaprizov has a lot of expectations on his shoulders, but he’s the type of player who can step up and exceed them. The more pressure that’s put on him, the more he rises except this past postseason. He’ll be looking to redeem himself this season and it’ll be fun to see him live up to and hopefully exceed all the expectations put on him not only this season but his entire career.
