Some recent losses underscored the Kraken’s need for offensive help and that’s exactly what the team acquired Wednesday in a trade for former No. 2 overall draft pick Kaapo Kakko of the New York Rangers.
In return for the one-time 40-point man, the Kraken sent right-handed shot defenseman Will Borgen and 3rd and 6th-round draft picks in 2025 to the Rangers. Kakko, 23, is earning $2.4 million this season and has a year of restricted free agency remaining but had fallen out of favor with the Rangers after failing to meet expectations from being drafted so high back in 2019.
Kakko, a 6-foot-1, 215-pound right wing who shoots lefthanded, has four goals and 10 assists in 30 games this season. His career-high point came two years ago when he scored 18 goals and added 22 assists for a career-high 40 points over the full 82 matchups.
“We’ve been kicking tires on different things and with (Jordan Eberle) out, we’re short on the right side,” Kraken general manager Ron Francis said. “This guy gives us somebody that can play the right wing. He’s a big boy, and he’s got some skills. So, we thought it was the right move to make.”
Besides being able to battle for pucks in the corners and along the boards, the Kraken hope Kakko can give them more of a net front presence they’ve lacked at times.
Francis opted for the deal ahead of the upcoming Holiday Roster Freeze – designed to prevent players from being traded or shipped to the minors over the holidays – starting Thursday at midnight and running until midnight on Dec. 27. He could have waited until the March trade deadline to try to move Borgen, but that would likely have resulted in only receiving draft picks in return.
“At this point, I’m trying to get a body to help the team,” Francis said.
The Rangers made Kakko a healthy scratch Sunday against St. Louis, the first time he’s been sat in the regular season. He’d been scratched twice previously in the playoffs and his latest benching – amid a Rangers freefall that has seen them lose 11 times in the last 14 games – raised speculation a trade somewhere was imminent.
Plenty of suitors, including the Minnesota Wild, Pittsburgh Penguins and Dallas Stars were said to be angling for Kakko, but it was the Kraken who emerged with him by making a trade that included original Kraken expansion draft defender Borgen, 27, a pending unrestricted free agent earning $2.7 million this season.
After sitting much of his first season following the expansion draft, when selected from the Buffalo Sabres, Borgen emerged into a reliable third-pairing defender as the Kraken advanced to the second round of the playoffs in 2022-23. He’d moved up to the team’s second pairing alongside Jamie Oleksiak last season but was back to third pairing duties after last summer’s signing of free agent Brandon Montour and the extension given Adam Larsson – both right-handed shot defenders like Borgen.
“In fairness, he’s in the option year of his contract,” Francis said. “And once we brought on Montour and extended Larson it was getting tougher to find him ice time.”
To date, Borgen has played in 216 consecutive regular-season games, which is the 17th-longest active Iron Man streak in the NHL and the sixth-longest such streak by a defenseman. Borgen also appeared in all 14 games of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs with the Kraken, adding one goal and two assists.
His 535 hits ranked second all-time among Kraken players.
But with the solid play of reservist Josh Mahura and right-handed shot defender Ville Ottavainen, an emerging prospect looking good with AHL Coachella Valley, it seemed unlikely the Kraken would maintain Borgen’s services beyond the upcoming March trade deadline. The Kraken also have Cale Fleury and Gustav Oloffson as AHL right-handed D-man options.
So, Borgen was moved even sooner.
By acquiring Kakko, the Kraken now have a player who will be participating in the upcoming Four Nations Face-Off tournament from Feb. 12-20 in Montreal and Boston, when his Finnish team will square off against the U.S., Canada and Sweden. Kakko has made history representing Finland before, becoming the youngest player ever to win gold in all three IIHF World Championship tournaments.
He helped Finland to gold at the 2018 World Under-18 and Under-20 events, then did the same at the 2019 World Hockey Championships at age 17.
That performance led to his No. 2 selection by the Rangers at the 2019 NHL Draft in Vancouver, getting taken one slot after New Jersey grabbed Jack Hughes. But while Hughes has become a scoring star with the Devils, the Rangers were still waiting for the promise they saw in Kakko to be fulfilled.
Now, it’s the Kraken who hope to see the promise come to fruition on a team that’s struggled to score at times.
Francis suggested moving Kakko out of New York, with Hughes playing just across the river in New Jersey, might be good for the young player.
“It’s pretty close,” he said. “So, you get him out here, away from that and we have a chance to work with him. That’s what we’re hoping for.”
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