Kaapo Kakko and fading Rangers divorce was long overdue

His response may ultimately be seen as the definitive endpoint in New York.

The Rangers traded Kakko to Seattle Wednesday, returning defenseman Will Borgen, a 2025 third-round pick and a 2025 sixth-round pick. 

The Rangers are 3-11 in their last 14 games and have the worst record in the NHL since Nov. 20.

It’s make-or-break time for a team hoping Borgen can stabilize their third defensive pair following the Jacob Trouba trade earlier this month.

Victor Mancini, a big, mobile 22-year-old prospect who impressed in training camp, struggled in that role in 15 NHL games. 

The end of the Rangers-Kakko marriage, which started with such promise, is likely not a one-sided conversation. 

His path from the 2019 NHL Draft to the Wednesday night trade consisted of forks in the road where players and teams likely chose wrong. The Rangers put Kakko in the NHL — a notoriously difficult league to develop — from Jump Street. After his draft, he never spent another minute playing in Finland’s Liiga and never played in the Rangers’ minor league affiliate in Hartford.

Despite being one of the worst defensive forwards in hockey while offering little offensively in his first two seasons, the Rangers never wavered on playing him on a rebuilding NHL team.

The Rangers also limited Kakko’s ice time early, refusing to keep him in their top six for much of his early career. Whether that was related to his battle to control his Type 1 Diabetes and Celiac Disease or something else, the lack of ice time at a critical stage in his career development was a concern.

It started well when the Rangers finally awarded Kakko top minutes at 5-on-5. The Kreider-Zibanejad-Kakko line was very effective for a portion of the 2021-22 season, though an injury to Kakko ultimately took him off that line by the time the playoffs arrived. 

Over the next two years, Kakko’s forays into the Rangers top units were a mix of promise and frustration. The underlying numbers looked pretty good, but the offensive numbers — shot rate and goals — were never on par with other top lines in the league. The 2023-24 iteration of Kreider-Zibanejad-Kakko scored fewer goals than any other line in the league that played at least 200 minutes together. 

Peter Laviolette’s Rangers are known as a team that wants to play off the rush. Kakko, whose best years came under Gerard Gallant and his less rush-reliant offense known for a heavier offensive zone forecheck, is not known as a strong skater. 

According to NHL Edge metrics, he has ranked below the 50th percentile in skating speed and speed bursts over 20 miles per hour in the last two seasons. 

He has never ranked above the 50th percentile in the last four seasons tracked in speed bursts over 20 miles per hour.  

He ultimately settled into the role he’s been in — a third-line depth scoring winger who doesn’t give up much defensively. That’s a valuable piece to have, but not one that will demand a line or a team be built around them — particularly with an expiring contract and the player due for a potentially complicated arbitration battle in his next negotiation.

It directly resulted in the middling return the Rangers got Wednesday night for what was once seen as a lynchpin of their rebuild.