To me Laine is Jekyll and Hyde type of player. When he is on he is really hard to stop and he plays really intense game when he is angry. At Jekyll mode he looks slow, not really involved. I think he has lost that intensity he had younger. He is mainly on his Jekyll mode. Laine at his good stretch is better player than any finnish player in NHL but when he is off he might be hurting his team. Kakko is a guy who is pretty consistent with his game and has positive impact on clear majority of his games. It’s unlikely he explodes like Laine at PO’s because Laine was on total Hyde mode and that was ridiculous run. I see Kakko being far more consistent producer but when Laine is on he is unstopabble.
I agree with u on that Jekyll and Hyde allegory. I also think that what holds Laine to be more than just a 10 game constant threat is his own mind overall. He has been like that as long as Im able to recall. I've seen that arrogant attitude against everybody that critizes him or are against his will. That is also kinda one attribute that has pushed him to where he's right now. One junior coach f.ex said to him once that he cant flatten all of his teammates and staff only just because he knows better how to do it in every situation. He has met even the dark side of that appearance for life cuz he wants to win and be the best and not a runner-up. Thats why he suffers with all that self-critic that decreases his value to his team big time and decreases his confidence or thus increases it.
Kakko has same flairs of healthy lvl selfishness and arrogance that cant be described that much of narcistic side or as u stated aggressiveness, but he also question authorities (Like Saku Koivu f.ex, who recommended Kakko to add more lenght to his stick, but the next time they met Kakko had shortened his stick even more instead) cuz he wants to be himself and wants to win his own way, whether it was keeping the puck under control in forever and makes his teammates losing their minds cuz they dont see it useful or then some other way, that he sees suitable for his priority. They both have chosen their own different way to be the very best and thats what exceptional players do. They dont want to settle for some same mold and they push themselves to the limit all the time and make sure that theres rly nobody even close.
Every player are a unique person of their own but what separates top notch elite guys from just basic pros are that they learn sides from themselves and what they need to focus on if they want to get better.
Laine has stated before, that meaningless regular ssn games are the less-motivated to him. And games that means the most are the ones when he ignites. That affects to his thinking and working ethic which I think triggers either Jekyll or Hyde in him depends on the situation when he has either got frustrated a lot (when held scoreless, no matter how he does things), hes more interested in other things than scoring goals (not talking about scoring kills in fortnite with that other thing tho) or when the stakes are high like every game in poffs obv.
Kakko also seems to be a type of player aswell, who gets only better and better when everything is in stakes (WJC final, U18 final f.ex). He doesnt appear to me tho as that Jekyll and Hyde as Laine, but hes willing to do anything to get to a World class player, whether its self-critic etc... aspect.
Teammates he gets to play right now in TPS, I'm more than sure Kakko will do a lot of damage in liiga poffs, creating room to himself and his teammates for scoring chances at even strenght but most importantly in man advantage where TPS has the top group of weapons in liiga atm.