Did the Kraken rob NY with Kaapo Kakko trade? Insider weighs in

The Seattle Kraken made waves with a trade on Wednesday night, acquiring former No. 2 overall NHL Draft pick Kaapo Kakko from the New York Rangers.

Going the other way in the deal, Seattle sent defenseman Will Borgen, who has been with the team since he was taken in the Kraken’s 2021 expansion draft, as well as third-round and fifth-round picks in next year’s NHL Draft.

Seattle Kraken trade Borgen to Rangers for former No. 2 overall pick

Getting a player with Kakko’s pedigree and at his age (he will turn 24 in February) begs a question to be asked: Why was he available? And once that is answered, the next question is whether the Kraken have a potential steal on their hands, similar to when they nabbed another former first-rounder, Eeli Tolvanen, on a waiver claim two seasons ago. Based on reaction in the hockey world and the Rangers’ corner of the internet, there’s real fear in New York that’s what happened.

NHL Network’s Jon Morosi joined Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob just minutes after the Kraken made the trade on Wednesday, and he helped fill in the blanks.

First, the reason Kakko was available has a lot to do with the state of the Rangers, and the perception of his role in it.

“The Rangers have been in a state of disarray, especially over the last six weeks or so,” Morosi said. “Tons of pressure, and as sometimes happens in New York amid the media scrutiny and the team not playing well, there are a few players who are singled out as being reasons for concern or those who are responsible for the play of the team.”

Entering Thursday, the Rangers are sitting at .500 on the season and are sixth in the eight-team Metropolitan Division. Kappo, a right wing, hasn’t really taken off at the NHL level like you would expect with a player who was drafted so highly, but at 14 points and a plus/minus of 9 in 30 games, he has better stats this season than he did in 2023-24. Yet he and the Rangers seemed to be at an impasse, as he said he was surprised he was a healthy scratch Tuesday against Nashville, after which he voiced his frustration with New York coach Peter Laviolette to Mollie Walker of the New York Post.

“I know you’ve got to do something as a coach when you’re losing games, but I think it’s just easy to pick a young guy and boot him out,” Kakko said, according to Walker. “That’s how I feel, to be honest.”

The Kakko trade happened less than two weeks after the Rangers shipped out defenseman Jacob Trouba, last season’s NHL Mark Messier Leadership Award winner, to the Anaheim Ducks.

Morosi thinks the Kraken made a shrewd move in getting Kakko now.

“I think it was a really smart pickup by the Kraken front office,” he said. “… This is exactly the kind of trade that the Kraken should make because it’s a guy with some upside that you’re typically not able to access unless something’s going wrong, unless there’s some kind of a situation where his value is down. And so he’ll have, I think, a lot more offensive zone starts, power-play time. He’ll be set up to succeed with the Kraken in a way that he was not, at least of recent time, with the Rangers.”

Morosi also provided some context to Kakko’s standing in the hockey world.

“Compare him to maybe a No. 2 overall pick in MLB who’s known well to prospect followers and serious fans. Certainly he’s not an internationally-known name to the casual sports fan, but if you follow hockey closely, he had a great World Juniors years ago that kind of put him on the map where he was almost challenging Jack Hughes for the top spot in the draft that year. So he’s a special talent, great hands, great goal-scoring ability.

“(He) just wasn’t in really a good situation to produce with the Rangers, especially just how bad the atmosphere has been there. He was a healthy scratch recently, you could tell he had fallen out of favor, but he’s still a really talented player that I think the Kraken are getting at exactly the right time.”

The Kraken will play their first game since the Kakko trade at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Chicago.

Hear the full Wyman and Bob conversation with NHL Network and MLB Network reporter Jon Morosi in the podcast at this link or in the player near the top of this post.

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