On TSN‘s Insider Trading, Darren Dreger said “I look at the New York Rangers as being a buyer in the trade market in an effort to bolster their Stanley Cup playoff run and Stanley Cup chances. A second overall pick in 2019 of the Rangers, Kaapo Kakko is an asset that perhaps Chris Drury considers using as trade bait.”
Dreger added, “I know that multiple sources have said Drury is taking calls on Kakko. Losing Chytil for the remainder of the season is a big blow for the Rangers, but New York has cap space and potentially the assets, like Kakko, to acquire a significant piece.”
Kakko, who turns 23 in two-weeks, is an RFA at the end of this season and has a cap hit of $2.1 million.
Adam. Rotter: This certainly isn’t as outrageous of a thing as it would have been the last few years. I expected Kakko to have a big breakout season, similar to the season that Alexis Lafreniere is actually having, but things haven’t worked out as well. He struggled to produce, but so has most everyone, next to Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider and then he missed six or so weeks. He has three goals in eight games since he returned, but he was moved off the top line pretty quick and is now on a makeshift third line that will no longer include Filip Chytil.
He’s still so young, but he’s in his fifth season and there does come a point where, depending on what you get for him, you move on and accept that he might break out somewhere else….like Mika Zibanejad did. Ottawa was in a similar place as the Rangers are right now and Derrick Brassard was more impactful at the time than they felt Zibanejad would be. So it’s really a matter of who would be coming back in return and for how long? I think that the Rangers still place a high value on Kakko’s potential and so I wouldn’t expect him to be traded, if he is at all, for a rental. My guess is that Kakko stays and in the best case scenario he starts to break out, re-signs and, hopefully, becomes part of the core. Otherwise, I’d guess that these conversations are laying the groundwork for an offseason trade where the Rangers will have more cap space and the ability to absorb a more impactful player.