NHL Commerce Grades: Kaapo Kaako Dealt by Rangers to Kraken for Will Borgen and Picks

The New York Rangers, desperately looking for options to what’s more and more turning into a nightmare season, make their second commerce of the final 20 days.

Trading Jacob Trouba was a mandatory transfer within the huge image, nevertheless it didn’t resolve monumental issues on protection. They hope right-handed defenseman Will Borgen may also help.

In the meantime, Seattle can also be out of the playoff image. They might not have the hysteria at the moment current in New York, however this can be a workforce that should change its make-up and inject some youth at ahead.

Is that this commerce doubtless to assist the Rangers flip issues round? What can Seattle realistically anticipate from Kakko after he didn’t dwell as much as the hype in New York?

Listed here are commerce grades for each the Rangers and Kraken.

The New York Rangers’ issues proper now are well-documented.

They’re taking part in atrocious hockey and, if the season ended right now, would not be a playoff workforce. However the actual story has been very public discontent inside the group.

Kaapo Kakko’s latest complaints about being a wholesome scratch have been solely the newest set up in a season-long melodrama.

With a workforce needing wholesale change, it is no shock that they moved on from the disgruntled winger.

The truth is that these developments solely expedited the inevitable. Kakko was due for an additional contract in the summertime and the group is stocked with younger wingers on the up-and-up. Gabe Perreault, Brennan Othmann and Brett Berard will all be combating for full-time NHL standing subsequent season, with Adam Sýkora not far behind. They’re going to want low-cost, younger gamers to refill the lineup as they try to seek out dearer options to issues on protection and perhaps at heart.

So on that entrance, the Rangers made an affordable evaluation of the state of the group and workforce wants.

This is the issue.

It looks like Kakko has been round perpetually however he’s nonetheless simply 23. There are gamers simply breaking by means of at that age. Even when the Finnish winger has plateaued in his improvement, he’s a 45-point winger with a powerful defensive presence and may very well be a succesful NHLer for the subsequent decade. That is a useful participant within the NHL panorama.

And what do the Rangers have to indicate for it?

When Will Borgen is on his sport, he could be a helpful defenseman. He brings little offense, however the 6’3″ Minnesota native is an efficient skater for his measurement. He can retrieve pucks and discover exits out of the defensive zone. He is a good sufficient defender towards the push, a evident weak spot for the Rangers. At his greatest, Borgen is a shutdown third-pairing defenseman.

However Borgen has been very poor for Seattle this season. Statistically, the righty has been one of many worst defensemen in the NHL in all aspects: offensive, defensive, and general impacts. It is doable the Rangers simply made their protection even worse.

The Rangers are betting that Borgen wasn’t a match for brand spanking new head coach Dan Bylsma’s techniques, however to what finish? Even when he figures it out in New York, will probably be as a third-pairing defenseman who turns into an unrestricted free agent in six months.

Ignore Kakko’s historical past as a second-overall decide. The Rangers traded a younger middle-six winger who performs a 200-foot sport in return for spare components. It is exhausting to see how, even within the best-case state of affairs, this does a lot of something to vary the trajectory of their season whereas providing little in the best way of long-term assist.

Grade: C-

Let’s get this out of the best way; Kaapo Kakko has not lived as much as second-overall billing and by no means will. He has work to do to even cement a spot within the top-15 of a 2019 redraft.

As soon as all expectations are decoupled from that historical past, it is simple to understand what the Finnish winger brings to the desk. For many of this season, Kakko was an necessary a part of the workforce’s greatest line. He has nice defensive habits to remove lanes and win pucks. He’s extraordinarily robust across the partitions, holding pucks perpetually and lengthening offensive-zone cycles.

With the mixture of measurement, instincts, and work ethic, Kakko is phenomenal at making performs everywhere in the ice to tilt play in his workforce’s favor.

What hasn’t developed for Kakko since his days in Finland are his palms. It takes him too lengthy to course of play and get the puck off his stick, whether or not that is an additional delay in his taking pictures movement or a wrestle to beat a defender in open ice.

He’s simply 23 years previous, although, and he in all probability was impacted lots by expectations that he inherited as a international teenager within the New York market. Perhaps Seattle can unlock extra in his sport. Perhaps Kakko will discover his method and turn out to be a 50-point top-six winger. If he does, it is a steal for Seattle.

Even when not, one can safely undertaking Kakko as a fixture on the Kraken third line for the subsequent 5 seasons. The value for that sort of participant is often far more than third- and sixth-round picks plus a depth defenseman who fell out of favor. Think about, as an example, that each Tanner Jeannot and Beck Malenstyn introduced again second-round picks over the summer time regardless of being far worse gamers.

Grade: A