Every franchise has prospects not fulfill their “potential.” What other major prospects have the Rangers had in the modern era that could say didn’t meet their potential?
We are talking about projecting a 17 year old to the best league in the world. There will always be some misses, just like the multiple 3rd and 4th round picks the Rangers have had that far exceeded what was expected (or they wouldn’t have fallen so far in their respective drafts). Or even their multiple 1st round picks that didn’t bust.
What did the Rangers do to “ruin” Kakko that they did the opposite of to Cuylle? How about K’Andre Miller? Chytil? Schneider? Shesterkin? Skjei? Buchnevich? JT Miller? Fast? That’s 10 players off the top of my head that most would argue exceeded (often far exceeded) their draft expectations in the last 15 drafts, all by the same team that somehow have a “serious culture and development problem” that failed Kakko, and pretty much ONLY Kakko. And don’t quote Anderson and McIlrath. Every team has multiple picks between 7-10 that don’t pan out.
Kakko was pacing for scoring in or below the 40s before he was traded. Slightly worse ballpark as some of the forwards you mention which are still not great. (Cuyle, Chytil, Laf). Kakko is doing better now (pacing 60pts in his Seattle games). Much of that is simple opportunities.
Miller was a bit better though still far from what he’d become.
There’s a reason Rangers have a long standing rep for their forward development.
The big issue in my eyes is they rushed the rebuild. They had not enough patience to develop. They acquired various veterans to play the same position as some of their young guys, and hired the old school Win-Now, My Job Isn’t To Develop Players coaches
Development means opportunities to actually play key situations, and confidence helps.
Harder to build confidence when your coach scratches you when you’re playing hard for making even one mistake, while he continues to reward multiple underperforming vets with less hustle, giving them a much longer leash and still giving them prime minutes when they look like shit.
When Kakko got scratched, he had a better 5v5 goal differential than much of the team if I recall.
* His even strength points prior to scratch, individually was almost as much as Kreider and Zibanejad combined (and presumably they combined on some of those?) despite averaging multiple fewer minutes per game*
It’s the same shit Trotz used to do with Schmidt before we let Vegas have him and he immediately become a top pair guy.
Some players don’t need development effort. Great for them. Others do, that doesn’t mean you don’t try to development them, but that’s what many teams do. There’s a reason tons of guys blossom after trades.
