Prospect Info: Kaapo Kakko, RW, 1st round, 2nd overall, 2019

[Amazing Kreiderman]

Random fact: Mika is a Finnish name (mika hakkinen, mika salo)

And that girly voice singer 10 years ago

 

[Kiekura]

I always say this when Euros laugh at Americans' geography skills (or lack there of). Its completely useless knowledge. Pretty much trivia. If you want to learn it more power to you (i'm a geography whiz but thats because i'm weird) but there's no reason to teach it in school, its something anyone can find out on their own. Unlike math or science or whatever, which needs to be taught.

It is not useless and we also taught about their cultures and stuff like that. It doesn't take anything anyway from math or chemistry etc. Same as some people say history isn't important.

There is currently going debate in Finland that we are focusing too much on math at our high school and our school system has too much value on math. You dont need math on everything and there are jobs where history or languages are far more important and you can do just fine with basic math.

 

[ElLeetch]

No one has directly said it, but I honestly think getting the second pick had a significant impact on how willing the Rangers were to pursue to Panarin.

Its a timeline mover. A 6th-8th OA is likely a good player... ~3 years from now. a 2OA of Kakkos caliber should have him off to the races at the start of year 2. That changes the landscape. It becomes feasible to be a contender with Kakko on his 3-year ELC. If you belive he can be an impact player on his ELC, you have a great opportunity to build around him now and try to win one, before you have to go and give him a 10m/yr 2nd contract.

The Hawks won with Kane and Towes on year 3 of their ELCs. It allowed them the space to afford Hossa. It paid off.

Its not out of this world to think having Kakko+Kravtsov on ELCs helps afford Panarin.

 

[Leetch3]

Maybe not to start with but I'd love to see them dominate

We thought KZZ was fun.....

problem is the rest of the lineup...yeah that line would be amazing but than who is the 2nd line? if you separate them you can have panarin with kratsov so he has someone to help with and plus you'd certainly make life easier for someone like chytil trying to be the 2C with 2 wingers like that

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

I'll go on record as saying that I'd be surprised if all are on the same line.

So would I.

Spread the wealth.

 

[Ghost of jas]

problem is the rest of the lineup...yeah that line would be amazing but than who is the 2nd line? if you separate them you can have panarin with kratsov so he has someone to help with and plus you'd certainly make life easier for someone like chytil trying to be the 2C with 2 wingers like that

My idea of separating them is having Panarin sign elsewhere.

 

[Ghost of jas]

Its a timeline mover. A 6th-8th OA is likely a good player... ~3 years from now. a 2OA of Kakkos caliber should have him off to the races at the start of year 2. That changes the landscape. It becomes feasible to be a contender with Kakko on his 3-year ELC. If you belive he can be an impact player on his ELC, you have a great opportunity to build around him now and try to win one, before you have to go and give him a 10m/yr 2nd contract.

The Hawks won with Kane and Towes on year 3 of their ELCs. It allowed them the space to afford Hossa. It paid off.

Its not out of this world to think having Kakko+Kravtsov on ELCs helps afford Panarin.

They signed Hossa in Toews' D+4 year, and Kane's D+3 year. I'm good waiting for that type of signing in the summer of 2022.

 

[turha]

Did you guys know that Mika speaks finnish?
I think it's cool and might help Kakko during the first years abroad

Yup, and he speaks it well! I remember reading somewhere that he is already brushing up his Finnish for Kakko. Mika seems like a super cool guy, he should make a great mentor.

I'm still stoked about Kakko ending up in Rangers. Your rebuild has been impressive and Kakko is just the cherry on top.

 

[ElLeetch]

They signed Hossa in Toews' D+4 year, and Kane's D+3 year. I'm good waiting for that type of signing in the summer of 2022.

Kane and Towes were still being paid $875k each in the year they won the cup, the first year of Hossas time with the hawks.

Patrick Kane - CapFriendly - NHL Salary Caps
Jonathan Toews - CapFriendly - NHL Salary Caps

Towes played in college D+1, and thus his ELC slid to match Kane, drafted the year after.

 

[sbjnyc]

I've lived in Europe for several years now, and their geography education is far better than ours. If you ask many Europeans, they will be able to name many of our states, if not all of them.

I honestly doubt many Americans can name all of our states.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/robinedds/happy-thanksgiving-we-are-very-sorry

 

[GeorgeKaplan]

Rightfully.

Hurricanes won during Staal's ELC.
Ducks won during Getzlaf and Perry's ELC.
Penguins won during Malkin's ELC.
Blackhawks won during Kane and Toews' ELC.

I can’t help but feel like all of those situations are completely different than the Rangers situation is, and the most recent one being 2009 makes me feel like following this game plan is unsound

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

It is not useless and we also taught about their cultures and stuff like that. It doesn't take anything anyway from math or chemistry etc. Same as some people say history isn't important.

There is currently going debate in Finland that we are focusing too much on math at our high school and our school system has too much value on math. You dont need math on everything and there are jobs where history or languages are far more important and you can do just fine with basic math.

I disagree but that’s neither here nor there. Back to Kakko talk

 

[Zub]

Its a timeline mover. A 6th-8th OA is likely a good player... ~3 years from now. a 2OA of Kakkos caliber should have him off to the races at the start of year 2. That changes the landscape. It becomes feasible to be a contender with Kakko on his 3-year ELC. If you belive he can be an impact player on his ELC, you have a great opportunity to build around him now and try to win one, before you have to go and give him a 10m/yr 2nd contract.

The Hawks won with Kane and Towes on year 3 of their ELCs. It allowed them the space to afford Hossa. It paid off.

Its not out of this world to think having Kakko+Kravtsov on ELCs helps afford Panarin.

Agreed. If the rangers were to get Panarin somehow then i would be even more hyped.

 

[EdJovanovski]

I wish they'd announce Kakko's jersey number soon

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

I wish they'd announce Kakko's jersey number soon

I've seen him with no 13, 19, 24, 34 and 54. I hope he goes crazy and picks a new one

 

[GeorgeKaplan]

I've seen him with no 13, 19, 24, 34 and 54. I hope he goes crazy and picks a new one

I’m kind of hoping he goes with 4

 

[Ghost of jas]

I want him to take Fast’s number....just because.

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

I want him to take Fast’s number...just because.

One switch removed from tying Derek Armstrong

 

[TheBloodyNine]

I wish they'd announce Kakko's jersey number soon

They’ll probably wait until training camp when he officially makes the team, unlike the Devils who just hand out numbers.

 

[duhmetreE]

Yup, and he speaks it well! I remember reading somewhere that he is already brushing up his Finnish for Kakko. Mika seems like a super cool guy, he should make a great mentor.

I'm still stoked about Kakko ending up in Rangers. Your rebuild has been impressive and Kakko is just the cherry on top.

His mother is Finnish. I'm nearly certain he's fluent

 

[Leetch3]

Kane and Towes were still being paid $875k each in the year they won the cup, the first year of Hossas time with the hawks.

Patrick Kane - CapFriendly - NHL Salary Caps
Jonathan Toews - CapFriendly - NHL Salary Caps

Towes played in college D+1, and thus his ELC slid to match Kane, drafted the year after.

kravtsov played in KHL in D+1 and thus his ELC slid to match Kakko...so that puts us on the same timeline to add our hossa in 2 years.

also $875k was the base salary but they counted as $3.725 & 2.8 mil against the cap due to bonuses

 

[Leetch3]

I’m kind of hoping he goes with 4

gonna say no on #4 only because I think its highly likely that at some point they will look to sell tickets by having ron greschner night. and don't want kakko to be forced to change if that happens...and not debating if ron deservers it, just saying i have a feeling it will happen

 

[broadwayblue]

gonna say no on #4 only because I think its highly likely that at some point they will look to sell tickets by having ron greschner night. and don't want kakko to be forced to change if that happens...and not debating if ron deservers it, just saying i have a feeling it will happen

How many tickets can they sell? Even on the worst matchup there really aren't too many unsold seats.

 

[GordonGecko]

So strange. I have no idea what value that adds in Europe.

I've known this sort of thing all my life, 95% of other kids in school and now as adults could not care less about geography and couldn't name the first thing about another state let alone another country. Me, I can stare at maps all day long and basically memorize them. You're either interested in other places or you're not, I've found most people are not

 

[SnowblindNYR]

I've known this sort of thing all my life, 95% of other kids in school and now as adults could not care less about geography and couldn't name the first thing about another state let alone another country. Me, I can stare at maps all day long and basically memorize them. You're either interested in other places or you're not, I've found most people are not

Well, you can be interested in traveling to other places without caring about words on a map.