Wilderness Walk: Kirill Kaprizov’s big butt

Kirill Kaprizov ran the entire world for 60 minutes on Sunday afternoon. A natural hat trick and essentially doing everything he can so that the Minnesota Wild beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2 in overtime, earned him some praise from his peers after the game.

For Marc-Andre Fleury, Kaprizov’s game reminded him of another elite talent he played with and some of his body parts.

That is definitely one way to compare Kaprizov to Sidney Crosby.

Aside from the physical way they’re built, they do kind of play a similar game. During Crosby’s prime offensive years when he was Kaprizov’s age, he was not afraid to get into the nasty areas of the ice and play solid enough defense to keep the puck and have the best offensive playdriving in the world.

That’s Wild

• In case you missed the exciting game that ended up being the win over Columbus, we got you covered. [Hockey Wilderness]
• The San Jose Sharks were active in the trade market yesterday but one little source said that they are interested in acquiring Jordan Greenway. [Hockey Wilderness]
• How much longer can Kaprizov carry the Wild? [10K Rinks]
• Bill Guerin wants to add to the Wild at the trade deadline because of how well this team has performed recently, but there are limited options. One thing is clear though: Matt Dumba will probably not get traded. [The Athletic]

Off the trail...

• So many trades happened over the weekend! First, Timo Meier is officially a member of the New Jersey Devils and was traded for a quantity over quality. [Yahoo Sports]
• Then, the Tampa Bay Lightning went ahead and traded five(!) draft picks for Nashville Predators’ Tanner Jeannot. [ESPN]
• Winnipeg Jets acquired out beloved Nino Niederreiter as the Predators continued to sell. [CBC]
• And a bunch of other less-important deals happened as well, but they’re just a little boring.
• Rangers defenseman K’Andre Miller got ejected from Sunday’s game for spitting on Los Angeles Kings’ Drew Doughty. [Yahoo Sports]