The New York Rangers have traded forward Kaapo Kakko to the Seattle Kraken in return for Will Borgen, a third-round pick in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft, and a sixth-round pick in the 2025 NHL, per team insider Vince Z. Mercogliano.
Moments later, the Rangers themselves confirmed the transaction.
The trade takes place a few days after Kakko was made a healthy scratch on Sunday for the game against the St. Louis Blues.
Kakko was back in the lineup for the Rangers on Tuesday in a shutout loss to the Nashville Predators. He ended the night with a -1 rating, but did record three shots on goal. In 30 games this season, he has put up four goals and 14 points.
New York has won just three of their past 14 games dating back to Nov. 19. and it has been a downhill slide for the team. Rangers general manager Chris Drury has pretty much placed every one of his players on the trade block, and it’s no surprise a guy like Kakko has been moved.
According to Dan Rosen of NHL.com, the Rangers had targeted Borgen for a while now:
“The Rangers have been targeting Borgen for a while, I’m told. They want to let Victor Mancini develop and this buys him time. The picks are extra assets. Kakko being a pending RFA one year from UFA plays into this too. NYR were not ready to commit long term to him.”
As for Borgen, who was selected in the fourth round, 92nd overall by the Buffalo Sabres in the 2015 NHL Draft, he has put up one goal and one assist in 33 games this season, for a career total of nine goals and 55 points in 247 games split between Buffalo and Seattle.
It's been a whirlwind week for Kakko, who is reportedly not traded because of his comments towards Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette. According to Kevin Weekes and other insiders, Kakko is respected in New York and was just on the block seeing his pending free agency in a year's time and the Blue Shirts looking to shake things up.
Kakko had said: “I was surprised, yeah. I know you got to do something as a coach when you’re losing games, but I think it’s just easy to pick a young guy and boot him out. That’s how I feel, to be honest. Haven’t been on the ice too much when [opponents] score a goal … I have not been the worst guy, but that was me out of the lineup.”
Selected second overall in the 2019 draft, Kakko has 61 goals and 131 points in 329 career games. He inked a one-year, $2.4 million deal with the Rangers this past spring amidst trade rumours at that time.
He is now out of New York, who keeps making bold moves...
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