The NHL is a high-scoring sport. The 22-year-old representing the New York Rangers is also evaluated through that Grab Kapo. Thirteen games and one scored goal is certainly not what the club or the Turku native expected from the beginning of the season.
Not especially when he had the most efficient forty-point season of his career.
Thirteen matches is still a small sample, and Kako’s situation cannot be evaluated solely on the basis of October-November or solely through performance. You have to look at the game more closely and look at the statistics from a longer period of time.
The more important question is, is the 13-match slump a weak phase or a symptom of bigger problems?
Player identity in search
The hottest question for Kako is, of course, related to power loss. Why has a TPS student, who played through the SM league at the age of 17-18, and excelled in the World Cup right after, not been able to grow into a scorer in the NHL in just over four seasons?
Kakko was booked into the NHL as the second player of the summer 2019 booking event. Expectations are built through this as well.
It’s good to remember that very few grow up to be a reliable first-line player in the NHL in a couple of years. It can take four to six years for young people to find their own identity and thus the final top level in the NHL.
The second one is on this road.
But at the same time, it must be possible to ask, is Kako’s playing developing in the right direction? Are there any signs of more ketchup bottle popping in the near future? Is your career stalling or is a rise to a new level just around the corner?
Urheilu’s ice hockey expert Ismo Lehkonen sees clear flaws in the Finnish youth’s playing.
– Maybe it’s time for the player and his close circle to stop and think about what work has been left undone. Kaapo is a hell of a competitor and a hardworking guy, but if the results are to be achieved, the gameplay should be made smoother, more mobile and more explosive. Kaapo cannot currently create any advantages by skating, Lehkonen’s line.
Skating is undoubtedly an area that Kako still has a lot of work to do.
On the other hand, for many who follow the sport, Kako’s player identity at the NHL level has so far remained obscure. Kakko still decided the matches in youth and men’s prestigious competitions in Finland by himself, but in the NHL, playing this has become more of a game.
And Kakko as a playmaker doesn’t profile as a big ice player of the new age either.
– He doesn’t appear to me to be the starting force of the game. As someone who gets the puck, then deflects and creates something. He was still able to do that in the SM league and the prestigious competitions. Rather, he is now a small space protector and puck keeper. When playing in a small area, it is of course easier to defend, one NHL player observer analysed.
– Maybe he doesn’t have the kind of glide and explosiveness that would be required. By skating, he doesn’t want to get to the finish line. As a result, he is not that versatile.
In the NHL, the sophomore tends to get closer to the wings and behind the goal, where he protects the puck and tries to create scoring chances either by passing or by getting on the goal himself. Kako has excellent attacking qualities and the ability to create, but at times the play is left out of the game.
Could this be one of the reasons why it is difficult for Kako, who was previously profiled as a goal scorer, to increase the number of shots at the NHL level? While in the league Kakko shot more than five times in a match, in the NHL this has not happened even close to two in five years.
In the current season, Kakko has shot less than ever before in the NHL, although he has played a lot in the first chain.
Former NHL player and JYP assistant coach Ville Nieminen needs imagination to play Kako.
– He is known as a grater and he has gained trust through that. Would he be able to bring some intrigue and a kind of playfulness to the game though? But is there such a thing in the varying roles in New York, Nieminen wonders.
Nieminen wondered what type of player Kakko profiles as.
– Is he a dominant player, a playmaker or a shooter?
Where is your place?
The experts also remind us how quickly Kakko headed to the NHL after the NHL reservation. In just over four years, Kako has had three different coaches in the middle of the whole learning process, none of whom – at least in New York with big expectations – is profiled as a developer of young players.
When the expectations of a top-end reservation were still packed into the backpack, the young player has had a lot on his plate.
Finns, for example Miro Heiskanen and Anton Lundell played another year in the SM league after the reservation. Mikko Rantanen played first North American year in farm.
– That may not have been the most optimal development path. Three different coaches, New York and big expectations. When young people are still trained through playing time and bench commands, it creates uncertainty and uncertainty. If the expectation is that there would be a new torchbearer, then it can be quite grueling, the player observer reflects.
Kakko has been looking for his own place in the team all these years. During this and the previous season, there has been a lot of responsibility in the first chain as well, but the biggest push has remained in the pipeline in terms of results. The best chain composition where Kakko has played has been the so-called “Kid Line”. They belong to the Junnu chain Alexis Lafreniere mixed Filip Chytil.
The player himself naturally wants to play in the top chain Mika Zibanejadin and by Chris Kreider with, but the result would speak for the junnu chain. In the current season, the first team scored two goals with Kako in 119 minutes. Last season, the junnu chain made 31 hits in 532 minutes.
For Kako, the chain of five-on-five games has a special meaning, because the Finn has no business in the first dominant composition occupied by star players. However, the truth is that in the NHL, the stars make a lot of their living by playing a superior game.
– In that top chain, Kaapo has not found his job description. It’s easier said than done when there are two star players who have their roles really clearly in mind, says Ismo Lehkonen.
– Sometimes a player also has to think about whether he wants to be a bass player in a band that plays in big stadiums or a singer in a basement band, Ville Nieminen formulates.
Comparison of Kaapo Kako chains
Lots of good, lots of work
Kako has a good grasp of the whole. The second plays well and conscientiously in both directions, fights hard and is a positive player in every way. However, the breakthrough in terms of making a result will have to wait for itself – perhaps for another while.
If we look at the performance over the last three seasons, it is difficult for Kako to fit into the top ten in the most important personal statistics for the Rangers.
Kaapo Kakko in New York Rangers 2021- (minimum 200 minutes) (ranking in parentheses)
Kakko has been a full-blooded NHL player from day one, as Nieminen puts it, but there is also plenty of work to do.
In addition to skating, the goal-scoring game also requires work through the shot.
– It’s a bit of a question mark for yourself, whether there has been work done with the shot. When talking about finishing and shooting from different positions and so on. The feeling is that he finishes with slightly weak percentages, states the player observer.
– The evolution of the game is going at a terrible pace. Kaapo has exceptional attacking instincts, but he doesn’t get the benefits. It’s like he’s wearing a weight vest all the time and therefore a defensive player always on the skin. Whether the pressure vest is mental, physical or technical. Or a mixture of them, Lehkonen spins.
The spiritual side should not be forgotten. The second is still a young player and even a young one whose contract expires next summer.
Evidence is needed, because statistical papers are the first to be unearthed at the NHL’s contract negotiation tables. It is certain that frustration also belongs to the emotional scale of a young person in the middle of everything.
– The sad fact is that these are all explanations. That’s the NHL. Sports always proves the truth. If you are in good enough shape, fast enough and skilled enough in relation to your opponent, you will get results. It’s the holy triple confidence booster. Others will then fall off the sled sooner or later, Lehkonen concludes.