Bill Guerin Reveals More Bad News on Kirill Kaprizov Injury

The 4 Nations Face-Off is over and the Minnesota Wild regular season resumes on Saturday afternoon against the Red Wings. President of hockey operations Bill Guerin — along with defenseman Brock Faber and forward Matt Boldy, who both played for Team USA at the 4 Nations — will meet the rest of the Wild in Detroit Saturday.

We’ll see if either Faber or Boldy give it a go at Little Caesars Arena. One person who we know will not be available vs the Red Wings is superstar forward, Kirill Kaprizov, who’s been out of the MN Wild lineup since January 26 with a lower body injury that required surgery.

Minnesota Wild expect Kirill Kaprizov to miss more time than originally reported

Initially following the procedure, Kaprizov was ruled out for 4-6 weeks.Unfortunately, we found out Thursday that Kirill had yet to begin skating, an ominous update being how far along in that timeline we already are. Then Friday, during an interview on KFAN Radio with afternoon drive time host Dan Barreiro, Guerin passed along more bad news regarding the Minnesota Wild’s injured Russian winger.

“We think [Kirill Kaprizov is] going to be out longer than we originally thought. How much, I cannot answer. I just don’t know. We’ll see how he progresses He’s just recovering now and we will see how it turns out. But he’s gonna be out a little bit longer than we expected. What that does with our cap situation, I don’t know. When he’s healthy, we’ll put him back in. If he’s not, we won’t.”

“[Kirill] is frustrated, and you know what, I don’t blame him either. The start he had, he was taking the league by storm. Then, you get this injury that sets you back and takes you out. Like, he was having a Hart Trophy type season. I would be frustrated too. But, we’re just trying to keep him busy and help him out as much as we can, but he’s frustrated.”

Bill Guerin Kirill Kaprizov injury and his mental state after multiple setbacks (KFAN Radio)