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Greg Wyshynski, ESPN
Kaapo Kakko doesn’t believe his criticism of the New York Rangers led to his being traded to Seattle on Wednesday night, although Kraken general manager Ron Francis believes the player’s candor might have accelerated a deal.
Kakko, 23, candidly disagreed with coach Peter Laviolette’s decision to make him a healthy scratch for the Rangers’ loss in St. Louis on Sunday. “I know we’re losing games, but I think it’s just easy to take the young guy and put him out,” he said.
Kakko also noted that while his line hadn’t generated a lot of offense — the forward had four goals and 10 assists in 30 games for the Rangers — opponents hadn’t scored much when he was on the ice at 5-on-5. “I’ve not been the worst guy, [but] that was me out of the lineup,” he said Tuesday
The next day, the Rangers traded Kakko to the Kraken for defenseman Will Borgen, a third-round pick and a sixth-round pick in the 2025 NHL entry draft.
An NHL source indicated that the Rangers weren’t reacting to Kakko’s comments in making that trade — that the move was made to continue to reshape the struggling team and because Kakko is a restricted free agent next summer to whom the Rangers weren’t ready to commit long term.
Kakko also believed his comments weren’t the catalyst for the trade.
“I don’t think it’s because of that. The team was playing not well enough. I was kind of waiting something is going to happen, and I knew also it might be me,” said Kakko of the Rangers, who are 3-11-0 in their past 14 games. “I mean, with those comments, I was kind of frustrated and I was honest and then that’s what I thought at the time.”
But Francis feels Kakko’s criticism might have hastened the trade.
Francis said that he and Rangers GM Chris Drury had talked about a Kakko trade for at least a week before it happened but that interest picked up in recent days.
“I would think when he was a healthy scratch that Chris got a lot of calls, not just from me. That tends to be the nature of the beast in our business. We had already started having conversations when the comments came out,” he said. “So it’s kind of an awkward situation. You’ve got a disgruntled guy in your locker room. So did that speed things up? It probably did, but at the end of the day, I think Chris wasn’t just going to do something to do something. But could have been a factor as well.”
Kakko had been vocal during his time with the Rangers about his role and the ice time he received. He admitted on Thursday that there were discussions with management about a trade last season to give him a fresh start with another team, but he stopped short of characterizing those talks as “demanding” a trade.
“Last year was kind of bad year for me. I wasn’t good enough, to be honest,” he said regarding a season when he had 13 goals and six assists in 61 games.
Rather than get that fresh start, Kakko re-upped with the Rangers in June on a one-year contract worth $2.4 million.
“I didn’t have a contract after the last season. We were thinking about what’s the best thing for me and for the team. We talked about it a little bit, but then [I] ended up signing with the Rangers and wanted to play for them,” he said.
But 31 games into this season, the Rangers are a disappointment in the Eastern Conference, sitting in sixth place in the Metro Division. They already traded captain Jacob Trouba to Anaheim in a bid to shake up the roster. Then it was Kakko’s turn.
He said he realized something was afoot when he emerged from a hotel sauna in Dallas to discover that he had missed three phone calls from Drury.
Kakko said he’s looking forward to getting started with the Kraken, seeing the trade to Seattle as a second chapter for his NHL career. In 330 NHL games, he has 61 goals and 70 assists (131 points). His career best in goals was 18 in 2020-21.
“I liked my time in New York, but it never worked out the way we wanted. I think this is a new chance for me over here, and then we’ll see how it goes,” said Kakko, who again will be a restricted free agent after the season.
Francis said the Kraken intend to give Kakko a chance to make an immediate impact, playing him in their top six forwards and giving him power-play time.
“We’ll see what the coaches want to do there, but he’s played 300 games but he’s still only 23 years old. So we just think there’s the potential for upside, and that’s why we made the deal,” Francis said.