Was Kaapo Kakko misused this season?

Comparing Patrik Laine

The last Finnish player to be drafted second overall and come over with the hype associated with Kaapo Kakko was Patrik Laine.  He took the league by storm, scoring 36 goals in his rookie season and 44 goals as a sophomore. He has developed into a streaky scorer, but there is no denying the impact he made in his draft year.

Both Laine and Kakko played only one full season in the Finnish Liiga before coming to North American.  Kakko outscored Laine with more goals and points. Yet, Laine had three times the number of goals and over twice the assists when comparing their rookie seasons.

There’s one obvious reason why that happened and it was deployment.  The Winnipeg Jets finished fifth in the Central Division with 87 points, seven points out of the wild card.  In his rookie season,  Jets coach Paul Maurice played the hell out of Laine.

He averaged almost 18 minutes of ice per game and here is the key number. He played 588 minutes with Mark Scheifele, the best center on the team.   With Scheifele, the team’s leading scorer their Corsi For % was 50.87%, not the greatest number,but still north of 50% when it came to possession.  At even strength, when paired, they outscored the opposition 46-37.

About Kakko’s usage

How Paul Maurice used Laine is the opposite of how David Quinn utilized Kaapo Kakko. While Laine was handed a top slot on his team and had the chance to play with the best players on the team, Kakko was challenged to earn that role while playing with other young players who were struggling as much as he was.

As a result, Kakko averaged just over 14 minutes of ice time per game, four minutes less than Laine in his rookie season.  He also frequently found himself stapled to the bench for long periods late in games.

A good example of Kakko’s frustrating season was in the second to last game in Dallas, just before the season was suspended.  Kakko scored two goals, giving the Rangers a 4-0 lead.  He played almost nine minutes in the first two periods, 43 seconds on the power play.  In the third period, he played 2:49 with only 59 seconds of ice time in the last ten minutes of the game with the team holding  a two goal lead.

It was classic Kakko deployment.  Andrew Cogliano scored he second Dallas goal at 11:52 of the third period.  Kakko failed to prevent the shot with a weak stick check and that was it for him as he saw only one 37 second shift over the last 8:08 of the game.

David Quinn’s comment about Kakko after the game was telling. “It’s huge for him.  He’s a kid that has always gauged himself by points, as most 18-year-old’s and guys that get drafted as high as him do. I thought he played a really good game tonight.”

There is no doubt that Kaapo Kakko has deficiencies when it comes to defense.  This has been a learning season for him, but there is something odd about not even experimenting with the rookie on the top lines.

The fact that he played 70 minutes or less all season with either ZIbanejad or Panarin is hard to understand. They didn’t draft Kaapo Kakko to play defense.  They drafted Kakko to be a goal scorer.  As an 18-year old with confidence issues, what better way to boost that confidence than by teaming him with highly skilled, experienced players who can complement him and take advantage of his passing and shooting skills?

It’s easy to be an armchair coach.  David Quinn has a lot on his plate and his own reasons for coaching the way that he does, but in looking at the ice time numbers for Kakko, there are some head scratchers.  The Finn played the equivalent of three games with Panarin, maybe four games  with Zibanejad and most of those minutes were when the team was caught in shift changes.  To not even try seems shortsighted and illogical especially after Kakko had a full half season of NHL hockey under his belt.  Despite that experience, he never really got the chance.

We will see what happens when hockey resumes.