According to Michael Russo of The Athletic, the Minnesota Wild are willing to burn the first year of Kirill Kaprizov's two-year entry-level contract, if the KHL star wants to do so.

Under the tentative collective bargaining agreement, players who played this season in the KHL will not be permitted to take part in the Return to Play tournament, but can sign contracts to burn the 2019-2020 season off of their contracts. Doing so, would allow players to reach restricted free agency one year earlier, after the 2020-21 season, but receive no compensation for 2019-20.

That decision came after NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in May that it wasn’t in the league’s best interest to have ‘ringers’ join teams for the most important games of the season. The Wild are set to face the Vancouver Canucks in a best-of-five series when play resumes to determine who makes the playoff field. 

Russo reports that Kaprizov will have a 53-hour window to sign for this season, which will come in the days after the CBA is ratified by the players, if they do so.

Kaprizov, a fifth-round pick of the Wild in 2015, posted 33 goals and 62 points in 57 games with CSKA Moscow this season. The 23-year-old was named to the KHL All-Star Game for the fifth consecutive season. 

On the international stage, Kaprizov won gold with the Olympic Athletes from Russia in 2018, posting five goals and nine points in six games.