How the New York Rangers rookies compare
By Steve Paulus
The New York Rangers have four rookies on their active roster. How do they compare to other NHL first year players?
It would have been difficult for Kaapo Kakko to live up to the hype that surrounded him when the season started. The same goes for Jack Hughes, Kakko’s chief rival when it came to headlines. The good news is the New York Rangers’ rookie is coming around.
After nine games, Kaapo Kakko was a major disaappointment. He had only one goal and one assist and his plus/minus was an abysmal -12. He was bouncing all over the lineup from line to line and saw less than ten minutes of ice time in an overtime loss to Arizona. He was seeing little time on the power play and openly expressed his frustration to a Finnish newspaper. Despite his obvious skill, visions of Pavel Brendl crossed the minds of more than one Blueshirts fan.
Six games ago, he started to turn it around. He has three goals and an assist in those games and is a +1. He is averaging over 16 minutes ice time per game and is playing on the first power play unit. He has benefited from playing regularly at even strength with Brett Howden and Brendan Lemieux and he is clearly more confident when handling the puck. Should he shoot more? Yes, but in the last six games he is averaging 2.3 shots per game, up from his average of 1.3 shots per game over the first nine.
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How does Kakko compare to other NHL rookies? Buffalo’s Victor Olofsson leads all rookies with seven goals. Kakko is tied with five other rookies in second place with four. He is third among rookies in goals per game average at 0.27. He is third among rookies in power goals and power play points. He is ninth among rookie forwards with a .40 points per game average, but if he continues scoring at the 0.83 rate from the last six games, that number will go up.
Kakko’s reluctance to shoot is reflected in the fact that he has had 44 shot attempts compared to 108 for Olofsson. 27 of his 44 shot attempts were on net compared to 59 for Olofsson, but Kakko’s 14.8% shooting percentage is behind only Olofsson’s league leading 18.4%.
Kakko’s plus/minus of -11 is the worst among rookies although it is worth noting that he was -10 in a five game span including a -4 game vs. Boston. In that debacle, Chris Kreider, Libor Hajek joined him at -4 and Jacob Trouba was -3.
How goes the vaunted Kakko-Hughes rivalry? Both players have four goals while Hughes has five assists to Kakko’s two. They both have four points on the power play. Hughes is averaging about 30 seconds more ice time per game. Hughes has the second worst plus/minus at -7. Hughes is behind Kakko with a 12.5% shooting percentage.
Finally, Kakko is one of three rookies to score a goal in the shootout. He joins Jesper Boqvist of the Devils who is perfect in one attempt and Joel Farabee of the Flyers who is one for two. Jack Hughes? He leads all rookies with three shootout attempts and has missed all three times.