Wild place Firstov on waivers for purposes of contract termination

Michael Russo from The Athletic reported earlier in the day that Firstov was being placed on waivers for purposes of contract termination. He had just finished the second year of his three-year, entry-level contract with an AAV of $925,000.

It has been a strange start to the Firstov’s career. He was taken by the Wild in the second round of the 2019 NHL Draft after a promising season in the United States Hockey League with the Waterloo Black Hawks. He then played three seasons at the University of Connecticut, where he scored 26 goals and 58 points in 82 games, earning Hockey East All-Tournament Team honors in 2022.

Firstov also represented Russia at the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship, where his team finished fourth after losing in the bronze medal game to Finland.

After playing eight games with the Wild’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Iowa Wild, at the end of the 2021-22 season, Firstov played one game in October 2022, before being loaned to Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod of the Kontinental Hockey League. He would spend most of the last two seasons with Torpedo, before returning to Iowa for the final 10 games of the regular season, scoring two goals and four points.

In 19 career AHL appearances, Firstov scored two goals and six points. In 129 games in the KHL, he has registered 33 goals and 67 points.

If he clears and his contract is officially terminated, the Wild will have 35 standard player contracts signed for next season. According to CapFriendly, Minnesota will have slightly less than $6 million in cap space for the 2024-25 campaign.