The Rangers are making moves.
The struggling Blueshirts traded RW Kaapo Kakko to the Seattle Kraken for defenseman Will Borgen, a third-round and sixth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.
Kakko, 23, was the Rangers’ second overall pick in the 2019 draft. However, the Finland native has not lived up to his draft selection.
After posting 23 points (10 goals) in his rookie season across 66 games, he had less than 20 points in four of his last five seasons including just 14 (four goals) in 30 goals this year.
Kakko’s high mark was during the 2022-23 season when he posted 40 points (18 goals, 22 assists) and played all 82 games.
Borgen, 27, has played 33 games this season and has two points (one goal) but is a minus-13 on the ice. He’s also an unrestricted free agent after this season.
Tensions between Kakko and the team were boiling over in recent days after his healthy scratch against the St. Louis Blues over the weekend.
“I was surprised, yeah,” said Kakko. “I know you’ve 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.”
This is the second major move the Rangers (15-15-1) have made this season after moving Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks earlier this month.
After the Trouba trade, GM Chris Drury indicated more moves could be made.
“I’m not opposed to making more changes,” he said on a call Dec. 9. “But big picture, the team has been through a lot the last couple of weeks. We’d like to let the dust settle a little bit. Let some new players we acquired from Anaheim, [Brett] Berard, [Victor] Mancini, different pieces. We’d just like to let the team settle in a bit with this.”
At that time, reports indicated Kakko, Chris Kreider, Reilly Smith and Ryan Lindgren had been discussed in trade talks.
