Confirmed Trade: [SEA/NYR] Kaapo Kakko for Will Borgen, 2025 3rd, 2025 6th

[sxvnert]

"trades will continue until morale improves!"

 

[Mulletman]

Lol when will people realize Kakko SUCKS. Hes a depth player. Nothing more. And so far from a team guy

And he has diabetes... You can't play hockey at a high level if you have diabetes...

 

[sxvnert]

Worst trade I've seen in a long time. I don't see how Drury survives this season.

He'll walk right into the Sabres job this summer.

 

[benfranklin]

Damn. I wouldve liked Kakko for that.

 

[TheBeerNerd]

Oh brother, this guy (Drury) stinks!!!!!

Not only has he been coveting Borgen for a while, he trades one of his young guys to do it. No, Kakko's not going to be anything close to his draft pedigree, but he was showing something this season. He'll be very good on the Kraken's middle or bottom six, possibly matched with Beniers or Wright.

Borgen's underlying numbers are terrible and that's with sheltered third pairing minutes. The Rangers lack of effort isn't going away with that kind of player. It doesn't work from a psychological perspective either. You can deny that Kakko's comments had anything to do with the trade all you want, but at the very least it's a bad look and it makes players want to speak even less than they do now. And, not for nothing, I think that's bullshit cope. I wouldn't be surprised if the mandate to trade Kakko came from Dolan himself. He's a petty, thin-skinned man, and Rangers fans should be thankful he's more concerned with the Knicks and his awful blues band that nobody listens to. Because when he does turn his Eye of Sauron on them, bad things happen.

One last thing. Buffalo lost Borgen for nothing in the expansion draft. Now Seattle traded him to the Rangers for Kakko. Yes, the other most embarrassing team in the NHL suffered splash damage from this deal. Bravo all around, no further notes.

 

[Rcknrollkillnmachine]

Peak Mike Millbury move. 4D chess and all.

 

[EP to EP back to EP]

Great job, Drury. Another bang-up job you did.


Like I said, Chris Drury is the worst GM in the NHL.

Is he worse than Benning though? he would add an extra 2nd to every deal as soon as it was mentioned another team asked about a player.

 

[TBF1972]

Winter of Chris

it's chris mess time ...

 

[BKarchitect]

He'll walk right into the Sabres job this summer.

This sounds….frighteningly realistic.

 

[um]

He'll walk right into the Sabres job this summer.

Burn down a rival team then join the Sabres. I like it!

 

[SEALBound]

I think the fans are more upset than the reality of trade. I would venture the guess that Drury has been talking to several teams about him and I would suggest that the overall returns were just not that high. So I think the anger here is more of a miscalculation of Kakko's value. I think HFB tends to ride that "But he was 2nd overall!!!" wave way too far and I think current GMs are paying for his performance now.

Borgen is probably worth a 3rd or a 4th, so 2 3rds and a 5th? Reasonable for Kakko, I'd say.

 

[The don godfather]

Man kakko went for peanuts I'm thinking drury wanted him out west so nobody in new York would think about him no more. What a debacle of a deal.

 

[Paper]

Kaapo Kakko gets out of the craphole to play for the Krak? Oh!

 

[Alluckks]

It's funny to me that Drury allegedly refused to include Kakko in a Guentzel deadline deal only to trade him for a bottom pair D and a 3rd half a season later.

The hold up was Pittsburgh insisting on Perreault

Enjoy your likes for bs lmao

 

[Volica]

That trade is ridiculously underwhelming and makes me wonder how many GMs showed any interest... or did Drury framework this deal with Seattle and call it a day?

 

[Empoleon8771]

The hold up was Pittsburgh insisting on Perreault

Enjoy your likes for bs lmao

From the trade deadline where the report was literally "Drury doesn't want to trade Kakko for Guentzel".

 

[67 others]

Just wait until Sean Avery replaces him

and calls every player he ships elsewhere his sloppy seconds

 

[tarheelhockey]

This sounds….frighteningly realistic.

I was gonna say the same thing. If you’ve followed the NHL for a while, this seems to “rhyme” with organizational behavior.

 

[Alluckks]

From the trade deadline where the report was literally "Drury doesn't want to trade Kakko for Guentzel".

A speculation post from around the trade deadline from a sideline ice reporter versus a current report that definitively states something from a reporter that leads the way for these stories lol

 

[Whalers Fan]

And he has diabetes... You can't play hockey at a high level if you have diabetes...

Really? Tell that to Bobby Clarke, Max Domi, NFL All-Pro tight end Mark Andrews, NFL All-Pro defensive back Patrick Peterson, and other elite athletes in other sports.

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

Great deal for Seattle

Terrible value by Rangers, Drury is making bigger mess of situation

 

[1989]

I think the fans are more upset than the reality of trade. I would venture the guess that Drury has been talking to several teams about him and I would suggest that the overall returns were just not that high. So I think the anger here is more of a miscalculation of Kakko's value. I think HFB tends to ride that "But he was 2nd overall!!!" wave way too far and I think current GMs are paying for his performance now.

Borgen is probably worth a 3rd or a 4th, so 2 3rds and a 5th? Reasonable for Kakko, I'd say.

To me, it's not fully about trade valuation here but how reactionary everything seems by the timing and methodology of Drury's recent actions. There's no time to waste jettisoning players with long-term relationships with the team instead of finding any way to mend things internally?

Threatening waivers to "circumvent" the NTC of your captain, or immediately trading a player the team drafted and developed only days after the player said they wished they knew why they were the one benched just is a bad, bad look.

Even without us knowing the extent of the conversations behind the scenes, it's really just reeking of organizational fragility and knee-jerk decision making.

And he has diabetes... You can't play hockey at a high level if you have diabetes...

Another Mulletman classic.

 

[Matti_A]

Poor Kakko.

He's the sacrificial lamb, paying for the sins of the Rangers veterans

 

[banks]

This is ludicrous. Drury should be fired.

VGK has always been cut-throat about roster moves. But they get away with it because it's almost ways a clear improvement on the ice. They let players go, in the process of getting better.

This last string of moves from Drury just looks abysmal. He gutted leadership and youth, all in the most backstabbing way possible. And the result is a less talented team. They just won the Presidents Trophy, so it's not like they're a rebuilding team. What is this garbage?

If I had been put in charge of NYR a year ago and told to "ruin this team", I couldn't have done a better job. The team is demoralized and losing.

 

[gabevh3]

Drury didn't draft him.

Funny, last year he was the GM of the year. One tough stretch and he's awful.

Gm of the year? Lol what did he do to deserve that?