The New York Rangers are back home for a brief stint of games before heading to the West Coast, and tonight represents an important date on the calendar that has likely been circled for quite sometime. Kaapo Kakko and the Seattle Kraken will take the ice Monday at Madison Square Garden, and it will mark the first time the Rangers' former top prospect has played at The World's Most Famous Arena since being traded last season. Former players returning always add a bit of intrigue to games, and with how things have gone for the team lately, it certainly represents a opportunity to ponder, "what if things went differently?"
What Rangers fans can expect to see from Kaapo Kakko
Kaako appeared in 30 games for the Rangers during the 2024-25 season and scored four goals while adding 10 assists for 14 points while averaging 13:17 a night. His game took off after arriving in Seattle, and Kakko went on to score 10 goals while adding 20 assists for 30 points in his first 49 games.
This season things have been a little different, as Kakko has been limited to just 27 games as he's battled injuries, and it really has been a tale of two seasons for the Kraken forward. Kakko scored one goal and added two assists for three points in his first 14 games this season. Over the last 13 games, Kakko has three goals, eight assists, and 11 points. In total, Kakko has 14 goals, 30 assists, and 44 points in 76 games with Seattle, and that factors out to 0.58 points per game which is higher than the 0.40 per game he tallied in 330 games with the Rangers.
From an underlying numbers perspective, Kakko has a 56.48 GF%, a 47.59 CF%, and a 48.57 xGF% per Evolving-Hockey. When looking at his performance above replacement, Kakko has been worth 1.3 GAR which would place him 14th overall among skaters. It is notably higher than Will Borgen, the player Seattle traded for Kakko, and the Rangers' blueliner has a GAR of -2.7 which is fifth-worst on the team.
Kakko had his moments, but the Rangers were right to move on when they did
Kakko had his moments as a member of the Rangers, and it got to a point where the team needed to make a change. You can have your quibbles about whether or not the team got the right type of return for their former top prospect, but it is clear that he's benefited from a fresh start. That said, it was hard to predict that the Rangers would end up with Mike Sullivan as their head coach, and that's worth mentioning because Kakko is the exact type of player who would have thrived under that system. That said, Kakko was a player who gave it all as a member of the Rangers, and he deserves a hearty round of applause for his efforts when he gets his moment on the Jumbotron.