After firing, Dean Evason reveals Kirill Kaprizov 'still in recovery mode'
Lips are tight in the NHL when it comes to injuries, but one day after being fired by the Minnesota Wild, coach Dean Evason revealed that star winger Kirill Kaprizov hasn't been the same since suffering an injury late last season.
Kaprizov was injured March 8, 2023 when Winnipeg's Logan Stanley ran into him from behind and fell on top of him. The Wild star crumbled to the ice and did not play for a month before returning for the last two games of the regular season.
"I think his injury took a lot out of him. He comes back and plays two games and then the playoffs, and he’s still in recovery mode. He’s had it looked at again this year. I don’t want to give secrets out, but that’s a hard injury to recover from," Evason told Michael Russo of The Athletic. "Has that affected his ability to have the pace? Yes, 100 percent. I do believe that. Kirill Kaprizov is trying his ass off. He just hasn’t found his skating pace that we are accustomed to."
Evason saying he doesn't want to "give out secrets" is a concerning message, especially when you consider that Kaprizov has looked like a shell of himself this season with just six goals and 12 assists in 20 games.
Before Stanley crunched Kaprizov to cause the injury, Kaprizov had 39 goals and 35 assists. He had just one goal and no assists in Minnesota's six-game playoff series loss to the Stars.
Add it all up and he has just eight goals and 12 assists in 26 games since the injury.
That's a drop from 1.14 points per game pre-injury to 0.77 points per game post-injury.
How long the injury will slow Kaprizov is the million-dollar question, but for a team that historically has gone as Kaprizov goes, it's not good news.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.