Proposal: Kappo Kakko for Jayden Struble + NJ 3rd

BleedBlue14

UrGeNcY
Feb 9, 2017
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St. Louis
I’d imagine the Rangers are a season away before shipping out Kakko if he doesn’t perform this season.

At that point they probably would get a lesser player in return. But I’m not sure Struble is someone who you look at to fill a hole if Lindgren is out long term anyways.
 

Baksfamous112

Registered User
Jul 21, 2016
8,452
5,894
You recognize Kakko is a PROVEN (so not anyone thinks) 40 point middle six winger who is very good defensively. The only difference in this is center vs. winger, but again Beck is not proven, and Kakko is.

Kakko also doesn't clearly need a change of scenery. He needs to play better hockey. It doesn't work that you put him on a different team, and he's all of a sudden an NHL all-star. His skillset is what it is. If you think you are getting a player with true 2OA upside, you are probably in for a rude awakening once he gets to Montreal. He's not what he was advertised as.

The Rangers have no reason to trade Kakko while his value is the lowest. He's coming off an injury-riddled season. If you want him, you have to pay a higher price than the "buy low" price. The Rangers aren't trying to trade him, so to "go out and get him", it's going to take somewhere between a "buy high" price and an offer we can't refuse.
Kakko has one season (out of 5) over 24 points. He’s not a “proven” 40 points player. It seems more like an outlier.

Just like Tage Thompson is not a proven 95 points player
 

Ledge And Dairy

Registered User
Meanwhile, Kakko could only muster 9 more points than “a healthy scratch or AHLer on one of the worst d-cores in the league” in more games played. When your guy can barely outscore a rookie defensive dman on a 28th place team, it’s time to take step back and think things through before trashing the other team’s player. Struble was actually out scoring Kakko for the majority of the season - 13 of Kakko’s points were after Feb. 9th lmao. The league better watch out this year if Kakko can continue his hot streak that got him to 19 points 🤣
Why do you just assume me and @dgibb10 are bias Rangers fans? He's a hardcore Devils fan so he hates the Rangers passionately and I'm a Flames fan so I have no connection to them outside of hating Fox. Please do not refer to Kakko "my guy."

You are right Kakko had a shit season last year production wise. What is factual though is he had 40 points just the year prior so look for why that drop-off might have happened. First thing I notice is the over 2:1 goal to assist ratio. He's not exactly known to be a sniper and all his other seasons indicate he generally scored a similar amount of goals and assists. Delving a bit further on why his A/60 might have fallen off I see that he had far less consistency in linemates. He went from playing over 600 5v5 minutes with Chytil and Lafreniere in 22/23 to barely over 300 minutes with Will Cuylle only last year. With the return of Chytil I would expect a big uptick in his production.

Also bringing up their games played is laughable, Kakko only played 5 more games. Not to mention saying things like "barely outscore" when he has nearly double the production is silly too. I'm not going to bother talking to you about your calling Struble a "rookie defensive defenseman" because that's already been proven wrong to you. All I will say is maybe you should look up who Alex Vlasic is for a real rookie defensive defenseman.
 
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eco's bones

Registered User
Jul 21, 2005
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Elmira NY
How Kakko's developed so far is disappointing but he's not hurting the team. How much Struble would actually help us in the long run is questionable. I get that he's a guy that maybe Montreal isn't too concerned about losing. An added 3rd rounder does almost nothing to mitigate that. It's not a great offer---not even really a good one. I'd rather hang on to Kaapo.

Getting on to Lindgren. I don't think he's as devastating a loss for us as some opposing fans might think. He's a combative but undersized mostly defensive defenseman who is frequently banged up. It's probably not a huge downgrade to Connor Mackey and the right shot Victor Mancini is looking very promising and has been getting some time on the left side. So rather than hit the panic bottom better to see what we got first before trading for a defenseman and there's always the waiver wire in case of emergency which should be busy right before the season starts.
 

TGWL

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Jul 28, 2011
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I've never seen so much outrage over a 3rd round pick. An undisclosed year and from which of the 3rds.

I have been very hard on Kakko but I'm not sure Struble is our answer. I don't think we need to trade Kakko for him. With that said the time is definitely expiring on Kakko if he doesn't do anything the early part of the season.
 

Garbageyuk

Registered User
Dec 19, 2016
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You are right Kakko had a shit season last year production wise.

What is factual though is he had 50 points just the year prior so look for why that drop-off might have happened.
Meanwhile, this guy comes in with reality:
Kakko has one season (out of 5) over 24 points. He’s not a “proven” 40 points player. It seems more like an outlier.
This sequence speaks for itself. @Ledge And Dairy you aren’t even being honest. Pathetic, really.
 

Pavel Buchnevich

"Pavel Buchnevich The Fake"
Dec 8, 2013
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Why do you just assume me and @dgibb10 are bias Rangers fans? He's a hardcore Devils fan so he hates the Rangers passionately and I'm a Flames fan so I have no connection to them outside of hating Fox. Please do not refer to Kakko "my guy."

You are right Kakko had a shit season last year production wise. What is factual though is he had 40 points just the year prior so look for why that drop-off might have happened. First thing I notice is the over 2:1 goal to assist ratio. He's not exactly known to be a sniper and all his other seasons indicate he generally scored a similar amount of goals and assists. Delving a bit further on why his A/60 might have fallen off I see that he had far less consistency in linemates. He went from playing over 600 5v5 minutes with Chytil and Lafreniere in 22/23 to barely over 300 minutes with Will Cuylle only last year. With the return of Chytil I would expect a big uptick in his production.

Also bringing up their games played is laughable, Kakko only played 5 more games. Not to mention saying things like "barely outscore" when he has nearly double the production is silly too. I'm not going to bother talking to you about your calling Struble a "rookie defensive defenseman" because that's already been proven wrong to you. All I will say is maybe you should look up who Alex Vlasic is for a real rookie defensive defenseman.
Thank you for being sensible. And sandwiched between that 40 point season Kakko had two injury-ravaged seasons where he has two tough injuries that impacted his form. Last year when he was on the ice he was pretty much playing with crap. Cuylle is a decent bottom six forward (he’s even better defensively than Kakko, physical, and can pot the occasional goal), but he’s not a big offensive talent. Brodzinski is waiver wire fodder or at best a fourth liner and Wennberg is basically a center version of Kakko (decent defensively with no real offensive ability). It was a good defensive line, but it’s essentially an elite fourth line, not any type of scoring line. Consider too that Kakko gets no real PP time. All his points are going to come at ES.
 

dgibb10

Registered User
Feb 29, 2024
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Why do you just assume me and @dgibb10 are bias Rangers fans? He's a hardcore Devils fan so he hates the Rangers passionately and I'm a Flames fan so I have no connection to them outside of hating Fox. Please do not refer to Kakko "my guy."

You are right Kakko had a shit season last year production wise. What is factual though is he had 40 points just the year prior so look for why that drop-off might have happened. First thing I notice is the over 2:1 goal to assist ratio. He's not exactly known to be a sniper and all his other seasons indicate he generally scored a similar amount of goals and assists. Delving a bit further on why his A/60 might have fallen off I see that he had far less consistency in linemates. He went from playing over 600 5v5 minutes with Chytil and Lafreniere in 22/23 to barely over 300 minutes with Will Cuylle only last year. With the return of Chytil I would expect a big uptick in his production.

Also bringing up their games played is laughable, Kakko only played 5 more games. Not to mention saying things like "barely outscore" when he has nearly double the production is silly too. I'm not going to bother talking to you about your calling Struble a "rookie defensive defenseman" because that's already been proven wrong to you. All I will say is maybe you should look up who Alex Vlasic is for a real rookie defensive defenseman.
Or Kaiden Guhle on MTL which is what an actual promising young dman in a bad situation looks like.

But yeah, the claim that I ride for the rangers is insane. Kakko is a decent winger who probably still has some upside, but at the very least is an effective NHL player who can help a team win. Struble is not that, and is no different than whatever 1-3 depth D prospects every single team has in their system and every fanbase is convinced is "not a top pair dman but can definitely be solid". The only difference is he's gotten playing time due how awful MTL has been defensively and they'll throw just about anything out there.

Y'know, a Nikita Okhotiuk type (thrown out as an example that both our teams have seen) that tends to be moved out right before they lose their waiver exemptions.
 

Ledge And Dairy

Registered User
Or Kaiden Guhle on MTL which is what an actual promising young dman in a bad situation looks like.

But yeah, the claim that I ride for the rangers is insane. Kakko is a decent winger who probably still has some upside, but at the very least is an effective NHL player who can help a team win. Struble is not that, and is no different than whatever 1-3 depth D prospects every single team has in their system and every fanbase is convinced is "not a top pair dman but can definitely be solid". The only difference is he's gotten playing time due how awful MTL has been defensively and they'll throw just about anything out there.

Y'know, a Nikita Okhotiuk type (thrown out as an example that both our teams have seen) that tends to be moved out right before they lose their waiver exemptions.
Like don't get me wrong, Kakko has not come anywhere close to living up to his draft potential yet. But if (and (I've seen this idea thrown around a couple times) lets say the Rangers offered Kakko and a 2nd or something for Kuzmenko at the deadline I would take it. Because Kakko still has that pedigree and may really benefit from a change of scenery, especially since the team he's played for has been trying to contend his entire career.

On the other hand I would be fairly disappointed if the return for Kuzmenko was Struble and a similarly late 2nd round pick. The 2nd is still a 2nd but there is almost no chance of that potential breakout that Kakko could have elsewhere.

I look at a player like Sam Bennett, another high pick, who (if my math is correct) had played 12 more games and had 1 less point at the same age. He was eventually moved to Florida and completely rehabilitated his game. Becoming a ~50 point powerforward that played a major role in both of their cup runs. That is what a team is looking for in a potential Kakko trade, the chance of a breakout due to a change of scenery, you simply just don't have that kind of potential with someone like Struble.
 

UED

Registered User
May 2, 2021
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why would we pay anything for a 20 point offensive player? jake evans scores more points than kakko and he's a 4th line defender..I think kakko's not worth his contract so they should have to pay us to take him for the cap relief. and we would just waive him where he would go unclaimed(maybe columbus takes him for cap reasons) and play out the rest of his contract in the AHL.

the guy does nothing when he doesn't score and he scores less than everyone else. Least physical player on the Rangers, fewest blocked shots on the Rangers, among the fewest takeaways, almost the fewest giveaways & a yearly lady byng favorite which goes to show he really doesn't do anything. Didn't even have 100 shots he just watches everyone else play. 36 pathetic seconds of penalty kill.

next we're gonna go and sign nolan patrick and nail yakupov. this could be their year!
 

Albatros

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Aug 19, 2017
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why would we pay anything for a 20 point offensive player? jake evans scores more points than kakko and he's a 4th line defender..I think kakko's not worth his contract so they should have to pay us to take him for the cap relief. and we would just waive him where he would go unclaimed(maybe columbus takes him for cap reasons) and play out the rest of his contract in the AHL.

the guy does nothing when he doesn't score and he scores less than everyone else. Least physical player on the Rangers, fewest blocked shots on the Rangers, among the fewest takeaways, almost the fewest giveaways & a yearly lady byng favorite which goes to show he really doesn't do anything. Didn't even have 100 shots he just watches everyone else play. 36 pathetic seconds of penalty kill.

next we're gonna go and sign nolan patrick and nail yakupov. this could be their year!
Since Kakko arrived to New York the Rangers have went from 7th in the division to 1st in the league, earning 141 more points than the Habs.
 

eco's bones

Registered User
Jul 21, 2005
26,846
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Elmira NY
Some players need adversity before they blossom and that might be exactly what Kaapo Kakko needs. Going to a new team might be the thing that really kickstarts him and it's probably a weaker team where he will play with the better players and get opportunities that he's not gotten with the Rangers. As a Rangers fan it's pretty much what happened with JT Miller---moving from New York to Tampa to Vancouver helped him to mature and take charge of his game. If he stayed with the Rangers he might still be pretty much the player he was.....and he was a good player. Now he's a great player. The same could happen with Kakko.....or maybe not.

It's a reason why I don't want to give him up for a bottom pair D at best and a 3rd. It's not like he can't be had but something better than that. As is he's shown if he can stay healthy he's capable of 40 points. He's a diligent responsible player otherwise. His draft position and the hype that went with it aside a 23 year old forward doing as he has is a valuable asset.
 

Garbageyuk

Registered User
Dec 19, 2016
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It's a reason why I don't want to give him up for a bottom pair D at best
“At best” lol. He was a bottom pair D in his rookie season. You think he’s never going to improve? You say that after that long-winded, excuse laden essay for a 6th year player. Zero logic.
 
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bernmeister

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Jun 11, 2010
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The NYR are short in defensemen, with Lindgren injury.

Particularly LHD.
Even with Lindgren, some more depth on the left side wouldn't be a luxury for the Rangers.

MTL need offense, with Laine apparently out long term.
Kakko isn't really an offensive contributor as of now, but MTL are in a position to bet on those kind of gambles.

Kakko for Struble + a 3rd
HUGE NO
 

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