Wild’s Kirill Kaprizov to undergo surgery, out week-to-week

Minnesota Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov will undergo surgery for a lower-body injury sustained in December and is expected to be out week-to-week, general manager Bill Guerin told reporters Tuesday.

The Athletic’s Michael Russo and Joe Smith were the first to report Tuesday morning the Wild forward could undergo lower-body surgery.

“Getting the issue fixed now, especially with the Wild having no games from Feb. 9 to 21 when the NHL will shut down for the 4 Nations Face-Off, may allow Kaprizov to return well in advance of the playoffs,” Russo and Smith wrote in their story.

The news comes after Kaprizov returned to the Minnesota lineup for three games after missing a month. In Sunday’s 4-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks, he recorded an assist and a minus-one rating in 22:17 of ice time.

Kaprizov got off to one of the hottest starts in the league, scoring 23 goals and 27 assists for 50 points in his first 34 games before being taken out of the lineup in late December with a lower-body injury.

Now in his fifth NHL season, the 27-year-old Kaprizov has 183 goals and 199 assists for 382 points in 315 regular-season games. He’s also played in 19 Stanley Cup Playoff games, recording 10 goals and two assists for 12 points.

Kaprizov has twice broken the 90-point mark, and in 2021-22 set career highs with 47 goals and 61 assists for 108 points, finishing fifth in the league in both goals and points

Kaprizov was taken by the Wild in the fifth round of the 2015 NHL Entry Draft. He spent the next five seasons in Russia’s KHL, helping CSKA Moscow win a Gagarin Cup in 2019. In 293 career KHL games, Kaprizov had 113 goals and 117 assists for 230 points.

The Wild are 29-17-4 with 62 points, third in the Central Division with a plus-three goal differential. Despite missing 13 games, Kaprizov leads the club in all offensive categories. Forwards Matt Boldy and Marco Rossi aren’t far behind with 45 and 44 points, respectively.