Wild planning talks with Kirill Kaprizov, Kevin Fiala after signing Joel Eriksson Ek

Not one, not two, but three blocks on the same shift against one of the NHL's hardest shots.

After Joel Eriksson Ek kept getting in the way of Shea Weber's wind-up in a game at Montreal early in Bill Guerin's first season as Wild general manager, Guerin knew the center would help the team win.

"That kind of solidified what kind of guy he was in my mind," Guerin said, "because you don't do that without having great character [and] great courage."

Fast forward to the present and there's no mistaking how valuable Eriksson Ek has become to the Wild – not after the team signed him to an eight-year deal worth $42 million on Friday, the first max contract the team has awarded since eight years became the limit in 2013.

"Them showing me the commitment and just the strides we took last year I really liked," Eriksson Ek said Saturday morning during a video interview from his hometown in Sweden. "The team we have, I think we can build something really good. Of course, I like it there and I like where our team is heading."

The deal runs through 2028-29, making Eriksson Ek the longest-signed player on the Wild.

Negotiations lasted three days.

"It just shows how much Joel wants to be here, his commitment to the team," Guerin said. "So when the team likes a player and the player wants to show that size of commitment, that's just the way it worked."

Eriksson Ek is coming off his best season in the NHL, tallying a career-high 19 goals and 30 points while centering the Wild's most consistent line with wingers Jordan Greenway and Marcus Foligno. That impact spilled over to the postseason, where he tied for the team lead in goals (two) and points (three) in a first-round loss to Vegas.

"When you see the way he played this year, you see how he played in the playoffs, it was kind of a no-brainer for us," Guerin said.

This breakout performance offensively didn't come at the expense of Eriksson Ek's trademark defensive awareness. Instead, he became a stalwart at both ends of the ice and the two-way prowess helped him rank fourth in Selke Trophy voting as the NHL's best defensive forward.

"He just kept getting better and better and asserting himself more and more, and I think he wants even more," Guerin said. "I think he wants more responsibility. I think he wants to show us that he's capable of even more.

"Joel's also got great leadership qualities, and we want him to continue to express those and show those during the year. He's just a good young player for us, and we feel like with an eight-year deal we're getting his best years."

Since he's only 24 years old, the Wild feels Eriksson Ek can still grow his game. Guerin said Eriksson Ek will get more looks on the power play, an opportunity to achieve the evolution the Wild is expecting from him.

"I'm really, really excited," Eriksson Ek said. "The team we have started to build and the strides we took last year as a group I thought was really good. Hopefully, we can do better this year."

Re-signing Eriksson Ek was one of the Wild's offseason priorities; finalizing new contracts for Kirill Kaprizov and Kevin Fiala are the others.

Talks with Kaprizov's camp are "status quo," Guerin said, and the two sides have plans to talk in the coming week. Guerin characterized the negotiation as an "open dialogue" and said communication hasn't turned cold.

"Sometimes it takes three days. Sometimes it takes three months," Guerin said. "There's nothing wrong with that. It's just part of the process."

Guerin said he's confident the team will get a deal done with Kaprizov, the NHL rookie of the year who scored a team-high 27 goals.

"I'm confident in Kirill and his wanting to be here and his willingness to play in Minnesota, and I'm confident that [his agent] sees that," Guerin continued. "It comes from both sides. It's not just them not wanting to take what we're offering; it's us, too, and we have to see it that way. It takes two sides to make a deal, and it just could take a little bit longer."

As for Fiala, who had 20 goals last season, preliminary conversations have started and the Wild also plans "to dig a little deeper" into the negotiation in the days ahead, Guerin said.

Kaprizov, Fiala and Eriksson Ek, respectively, were the Wild's top three goal scorers last season, and Guerin said after the playoffs he envisioned all three being with the team long term. But the contract that clicked for Eriksson Ek might not work for the other two.

"It's just a matter of finding a fair middle ground and what works best for both sides," Guerin said. "I think that's true with any deal. Ekky signed an eight-year deal. That might not be the case for Kevin, and it might be the case for Kirill. We don't know. It could be flipflopped. I don't know. It all just depends on years and dollars and what we can afford to pay and what we can fit in."

With Eriksson Ek's new contract on its books, the Wild has nearly $17 million in cap space for next season, according to salary-tracking websites CapFriendly and PuckPedia.

And while more deals remain to be brokered to fill out the roster, the Wild now has more clarity up the middle of its lineup.

"The atmosphere around our team last year felt different," Eriksson Ek said. "Just want to keep being a part of it."