Q&A with ex-Gopher Ryan Stoa on his career and playing with new Wild F Kirill Kaprizov

Former University of Minnesota captain and Bloomington native Ryan Stoa helped mentor new Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov when they were teammates in Russia.

We caught up with Stoa to talk about his interesting professional run, and what it was like playing with Kaprizov.

***Click the video box on this page to watch our chat with Stoa***

Stoa and Kaprizov were teammates for Metallurg Novokuznetsk when Kaprizov was 17 and 18 years old.

Stoa, 33, resides in Fort Myers, and he recently welcomed an infant into the world. He’s awaiting word on what the COVID-19 pandemic will do to overseas leagues. But his hope is he is able to play somewhere in Europe next season.

Kaprizov hopes to arrive in Minnesota next week, and practice with his new team. But he’s ineligible to play with them when they open a best-of-5 series August 2 vs. Vancouver in Edmonton. He can’t play until the 2020-2021 season.