Claimed off Waivers: [STL] Blues claim F Kasperi Kapanen off waivers from the Penguins

[Pens1566]

He was drastically misused by Sullivan. Square peg/round hole. Casualty of Sully being a shitty stubborn coach.

 

[nofehr]

Guess they needed the Kap space.







I'll see myself out

 

[The Old Master]

Why is the coach announcing this??

he couldn't wait.

 

[Ianturnedbull]

Kasperi Kapanen:

The most polarizing NHLer ever to be placed on waivers.

 

[Bishop7979]

What happened? He was a good, quality depth player in Toronto

He's been attached to the rotting corpse of Jeff Carter and the offensive black hole that is mcginn. Seriously kap is on waivers before mcgin who hasn't had a point in 25 games?

 

[Face Of Bear]

Ill take him back in Toronto @ 50% retained + Hallander to sweeten the pot

 

[Pure West]

My guess: The Pens have been trying to deal for a winger, and they tried to dump Kapanen in the deal pretending he was a coveted piece so they didn't have to pay anything to get rid of him. After that was exposed, they're now trying to see if they can get rid of him for nothing.

I think in the right role he could be a useful player, but these expensive, inconsistent middle six wingers without any upside seem to be big liabilities to teams in this cap crunched league.

 

[FunkySeeFunkyDo]

And I would expect us to have to take them back in a Boeser trade along with a first and a little something else like a third

How about in a deal for Pittsburgh native JT Miller?

 

[Arthuros]

Not every day that you see a team use a 1st on someone, trade them away, then use ANOTHER 1st to get them back, then decide to waive them entirely.

It's like opening a dodgy container in the fridge, taking a bite, finding it disgusting, and going back in for another bite.

 

[biturbo19]

Why is the coach announcing this??

I'm just envisioning a scenario where the coach's hate on for this player is so intense that he's decided to just announced that he's being waived. Forcing the GM into waiving the guy to save face.

It feels like a real throwback story to the "old school NHL" where this kind of stuff used to totally happen.




But anyway. Whatever the case...that's pretty wild. I still think Kapanen is a pretty darn solid 3rd line Winger who brings speed and can generate his own goals. I'd take him on my team any day. Even at his current contract price. Bizarre how much Pittsburgh (or Sully specifically) seem to dislike this guy. Further to that...he's one of the only Penguins forward that has any sort of appreciable speed.

Can't see why any number of teams down the standings with Kap space wouldn't take this guy on for free. Crazy to me that they couldn't find a way to at least include him as part of some sort of other, bigger deal somewhere.

 

[SomeDude]

Not every day that you see a team use a 1st on someone, trade them away, then use ANOTHER 1st to get them back, then decide to waive them entirely.

Just another Friday in Jim Rutherford's world.

 

[Arthuros]

Just another Friday in Jim Rutherford's world.

I think you just sent shivers down the spine of most Nucks fans.

 

[KevinRedkey]

If they retained 1.125 I'd take him on the Sens to play 3rd line.

 

[Bishop7979]

Washington will pick him up out of spite.

They have like 18 mil in cap space next season and can add him to their long list of ex penguins.

Jagr, Lang. Miller, mironov, the Ferraro twins, niskanen, orpik, schultz, sheary, haglin, sprong, Bradley, fata... I'm sure there is more That's off the top of my head. I think that collecting penguin cast offs is a fetish in d.c or something.

 

[Habaneros]

Word on the street was last season Montreal contacted Pens
about Kesperi Kapanen ...will soon see if Montreal is his new home.
Montreal just recently drafted his cousin Oliver Kapanen.
Makes one wonder if Oliver is coming over next season .

 

[me2]

Somebody smash Rutherford’s flip phone.

Could be worse. If Benning was still here he'd be flipping through dog eared 2014 draft profiles and getting in an offer already.

 

[Charlie Conway]

Even if he hasn't been great, still a surprising move to me. I could see a few teams considering picking him up. 30-40 point winger for free isn't bad.

I get that the's overpaid and maybe not what was expected, but could be a good waiver pickup for a bottom team, and then either retain in the summer or at the deadline.

Outside perspective, it looks like he's just being used in a different kind of role. The underlying numbers have been pretty good. This year was a drastic shift in terms of more defensive starts, and the advanced stats haven't been so bad given that, either.

 

[bossram]

My guess: The Pens have been trying to deal for a winger, and they tried to dump Kapanen in the deal pretending he was a coveted piece so they didn't have to pay anything to get rid of him. After that was exposed, they're now trying to see if they can get rid of him for nothing.

I think in the right role he could be a useful player, but these expensive, inconsistent middle six wingers without any upside seem to be big liabilities to teams in this cap crunched league.

Middle-six wingers are the least valued asset in the NHL now. It would behoove teams to not invest heavily there.

 

[LMFAO]

I could see him in Winnipeg

 

[3074326]

Heavy sigh

 

[66-30-33]

Washington will pick him up out of spite.

They have like 18 mil in cap space next season and can add him to their long list of ex penguins.

Jagr, Lang. Miller, mironov, the Ferraro twins, niskanen, orpik, schultz, sheary, haglin, sprong, Bradley, fata... I'm sure there is more That's off the top of my head. I think that collecting penguin cast offs is a fetish in d.c or something.

I can see it. Young guy with speed for days. Hope he gets claimed by someone, after that Carter can LTIRetire.

 

[DesertPenguin]

No he wasn't outside of him first breaking into the league. He had no chemistry with any of our top 6ers because he see's the game in tunnel vision. He skates really fast into the zone and then lacks the IQ or vision to use teammates off the rush.

He basically needs to carry his own line, except he lacks the ability to do that reliably in the bottom 6. Good pker and has decent tools, but no toolbox.

I can attest this is also the case in Pittsburgh, except for the fact the coaches don't even let him PK anymore, which he has stayed on multiple occasions he enjoys doing.

If they retained 1.125 I'd take him on the Sens to play 3rd line.

I think this is probably what happens. Pens are hoping someone takes the whole contract on waivers. If that doesn't happen, they start retaining until they get a taker, up until it's the same difference, cap space wise, to just send him to the A.

 

[TheGreenTBer]

He's soft, plays no defense, and any offense he brings is sporadic at best. He also has next to no hockey sense at all.

The one thing he is good at is lugging pucks up the ice with speed but the Pens have coached him to just dump pucks in, so they've chopped his balls off and neutered the one skill he has.

And yeah he plays with Jeff Carter which hurts him even more

Wait wtf? they turned kapanen into a puck dumper?

moving the puck up ice with speed was one of the few things he consistently did well in TO. why would they make him dump the puck?

 

[Pancakes]

Wait wtf? they turned kapanen into a puck dumper?

moving the puck up ice with speed was one of the few things he consistently did well in TO. why would they make him dump the puck?

You'd have to ask Mike Sullivan that. But I saw a lot of it with him here. way too much dumping it in.

They wanted him to be a bottom sixer since there was no room in the top six for him, and it just didn't work. Mike Sullivan wants a defensive bottom six that eats a ton of d-zone deployments and that is just not something Kapanen is a fit for

 

[TheGreenTBer]

You'd have to ask Mike Sullivan that. But I saw a lot of it with him here. way too much dumping it in.

They wanted him to be a bottom sixer since there was no room in the top six for him, and it just didn't work. Mike Sullivan wants a defensive bottom six that eats a ton of d-zone deployments and that is just not something Kapanen is a fit for

Yeah he is a tweener. He's not good enough defensively at ES for a traditional 3rd line but he doesn't have the hockey sense to excel as a scoring line forward for an extended period.