Is Kakko vs. Lafrenière a possibility?

If there is any delay to the start of the 2020-21 NHL season, don’t be surprised to see the New York Rangers allow their two top young players to compete at the WJC

The IIHF World Junior U20 Championshipswill be taking place this winter in a bubble format in Edmonton.  Scheduled to start on December 25, the tournament will run until January 5, the date of the medal games.   There are six Rangers prospects who are considered candidates to play in the tournament, but that doesn’t include two big names.

Alexis Lafrenière and Kaapo Kakko are both eligible to play as they turn 20 in 2021.  When the NHL announced a January 1 start date for the season, it ruled out their participation in the tournament, but it now looks like January 1 is going to be overly ambitious and that could mean the two young stars could actually play.

If the NHL season begins in late January, that would mean training camps wouldn’t open until after the WJC has concluded and that means that Kakko and Lafrenière wouldn’t lose anything by playing.

Why it makes a lot of sense

There’s one big reason why the Rangers should allow both Kakko and Lafrenière to play, even if it means them missing the start of training camp.  A late January start to the NHL season would mean that the league will be playing a truncated season.  Without a full schedule, it will be even more important for teams to get off to a good start.  A lousy start will set the team back and make it impossible to make the playoffs.

Rangers President John Davidson addressed that issue in a YouTube interview last week.  He said “Who knows if the season is going to be 82 games or fewer…so it could be a real sprint. We don’t know.  We really have to make sure that the player are in position where they’ve really done a good job with their training.”

What better training for a young player than an international tournament featuring the best young players in the world?    If these two young players can take part in the tournament they will automatically have a head start on the rest of the team and can hit the ground running.  Honestly, Kakko and Lafrenière should want to play as it will make them better in the regular season.  Logistically it shouldn’t be a problem as the tournament will be in Edmonton in a COVID-free bubble so Kakko would have to return to North America from Finland and face a mandatory quarantine and Lafrenière is already in Canada.

Both players have a financial stake in getting off to good starts. They are both on Entry Level Contracts (ELC’s) that pay them a salary of $925,500 including a signing bonus. However, both players could earn an additional $2.85 million in performance bonuses and getting off to a good start would help them earn more money.

The main reason it would be sweet for the two Rangers to play each other is the fact that Lafrenière led Canada to the gold medal in 2020 while Kakko was on the Finnish gold medal team in 2019.

Lafrenière was judged the MVP of the tournament and Kakko scored the goal that gave Finland the gold medal in the deciding match over the United States.  Though Lafrenière did play in the 2019 tournament, he was only 17 years old and saw limited action.

It would be a match up between two of the mostly highly touted players from the last two gold medal teams.