Sincerely wish Kakko well, he is becoming a good player and still young, and has upside. And the change of scenery could help him reach more of his potential. Objectively, 300+ games played before the age of 24 is a good start to a career.
He'll never be the player we hoped he'd be, but he's still better than his critics have ever given him credit for, regardless of the low points. And more recently, respectably consistent and fairly reliable... better than most of the team, and not purely due to the fact that the rest of the team's play was so poor; in spite of it... he didn't sink along with them. He deserves minor credit for that, on the way out at least, after he was commonly seen as too mild-mannered or like he didn't have the same energy, competitive spirit, or whatever some of the criticisms might have been... I'd say this is evidence to the contrary, even him speaking up about being scratched.
Despite how anyone feels about his comments to the media about being scratched, even still he was just about the least of the Rangers' current problems. And because of that alone, it's disappointing on some level that he's the next one to go, for a meager return.
Purely pointless speculation, but I really hope he wasn't traded over those comments about being scratched. A GM willing to be ruthless due to cap constraints is ruthless business, that's fine. A GM shipping a player out because he basically told the truth *would* be personal. I'd stop short of ever saying it was the only factor, but if it was a factor, that's the wrong reason.
