biturbo19
Registered User
- Jul 13, 2010
- 26,931
- 12,115
The problem is, not only does Kakko not put up points, his linemates can't either when he's out there.
He has a good influence on a number of underlying numbers, but he's a terrible influence on goals-for over a pretty large sample.
It's kind of weird. I don't normally put an enormous amount of stock in the "underlying numbers" in general...but Kakko is a real example of where they can generate...anomalous results sometimes.
Especially when cross-referenced with the eye-test and other statistics and metrics and deployment info and all the rest of the portfolio.
Where...it all really just screams that he's not a "dumb player" per se. Just that he's an extremely conservative player, and not nearly as skilled or creative offensively as his draft position would generally suggest.
He's kind of...Jack Skille for the contemporary age. But already significantly better than what Skille eventually turned himself into late in his career as a functional 4th line checker. So he'll always have that.
But there really is just that "play it safe" element to Kakko that i'm not sure he'll ever overcome. Short of some sort of major "wakeup call" change. But he's also too "decent" as a fairly "safe" checker already to maybe ever get that come to Jeebus moment that shakes him loose.
Plus, he seems permanently hex yipped as a finisher and just handling the puck in prime opportunities in general.