Kaprizov of Wild motivated by Robertson in race for Calder Trophy

ST. PAUL, Minn. --Kirill Kaprizov said he is more driven to help the Minnesota Wild win than he is to compete with Dallas Stars forward Jason Robertson in the race to be voted the winner of the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year.

"I don't think about it much, but with all the Instagram, you do see it and, of course, seeing another opponent there, it helps motivate you," the Wild forward said Tuesday of being a leading candidate for the Calder. "It makes you want to do better and that's as any competitor would. But other than that, I don't focus or think about it, to be honest.
"With today's day and age with social media, everyone has Instagram and things like that. I'm constantly getting messages [about the Calder race]. I see it everywhere. It's hard not to notice it. ... I don't stress about it. Obviously, it's always great to win something, but for me personally, the team performance is first, and any personal accolades come after that.
"For the reporters, it's probably quite a bit of clickbait to get the ratings up, but for me personally, I really don't think about it much."
Kaprizov, who turned 24 on Monday, leads NHL rookies with 41 points (22 goals, 19 assists) in 47 games, one ahead of Robertson, a 21-year-old who has scored 40 points (15 goals, 25 assists) in 44 games.
Kaprizov is the leading scorer for the Wild (31-11-4), who clinched a Stanley Cup Playoff berth with a 6-3 win at the San Jose Sharks on Saturday, when he scored once to extend his goal streak to five games (six goals). He can become the fourth NHL rookie to lead his team in points in the regular season since 1993-94 and the first since Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews in 2016-17 (69 points in 82 games).

Despite that, Kaprizov said he's more comfortable directing accolades toward his teammates.
"I don't like to give myself compliments," he said. "I don't like to think of myself as an outlier. To be honest, at the end of the day, it was a team. All the guys got together. We all played well. It was a team effort, and at the end of the day, that's really all it's about and all I focus on, that it's a team game and how we can get better as a team."
The Wild are in third place in the Honda West Division, one point behind the second-place Colorado Avalanche and 17 points ahead of the fourth-place St. Louis Blues. The top four teams will qualify for the playoffs. Minnesota is scheduled to host St. Louis on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN).
Selected by the Wild in the fifth round (No. 135) of the 2015 NHL Draft, Kaprizov signed a two-year, entry-level contract with them July 13, 2020, following six seasons in the Kontinental Hockey League, where he scored 230 points (113 goals, 117 assists) in 293 games with Metallurg Novokuznetsk, Salavat Yulaev Ufa and CSKA Moskva.
He led the KHL in goals in each of his last two seasons (30 in 57 games in 2018-19 and 33 in 57 games in 2019-20 for CSKA Moskva) and as a 20-year-old scored in overtime to help the Olympic Athletes from Russia defeat Germany for the gold medal at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics.
Kaprizov has carried that success into a strong first season in the NHL, but he said he's trying to take a low-key approach in all aspects of his game.
"To be honest, obviously I'm happy, but it's nothing I really overthink or overdo," he said. "I'm also a little bit older than some of the other (rookies) by a couple of years, 2-3 years, so obviously it's great, I'm proud, but it's not something I really think or focus on. I just try to play my game and do the best I can every single day."