Good move, it would have been very stupid to trade him for pennies on the dollar, especially when you can keep him for only $2.4M, which is only a slight bump from his $2.1M cap hit this past season. I like this move, and no more excuses for Kappo, he needs to step up next season, it's on him. He'll still only be an RFA with arbitration rights after next season.
Yeah I mean one year at basically the same pay. He makes the leap and gets himself a decent contract or doesn’t.
If he decides to use his size, not to treat the puck like a grenade and hits the net when he shoots he should.
He needs to improve his quickness with his skating. He needs to have an aggressive, shoot first mentality. Most of all, he needs to start taking the body and develop a mean streak. He plays like a pansy for a guy that big and strong.
My take is everything about him is passive and soft, and he has no confidence. Think about the stories we heard when we were going to draft him. Strong kid who uses his body and size to be a bull of a power forward. We don't see that as he came to the NHL, physically wasn't ready to be that player in this league against these men, and he has been timid about it ever since, even though he should be getting bigger, stronger, and more acclimated every season. He needs to get some confidence in himself and play with a mean streak. I think if he does that, we will see very different results from Kappo.
Hope Drury is going to trade him, Kappo's physical game is more suited for West Side Story on Broadway. A year or two ago there was preseason video of Kakko unleashing a 104 mph slap shot. How many times have we seen him skate into the offensive zone along the boards and turn it loose?
Last year, me included who defended Lafreniere were down on him. Rangers with Lafreniere much like Kakko are retarded in how they developed them, giving them no first PP time. Lafreniere overcame it with his potential greatness. Kakko has stalled. Let's give him the off-season unless they get a great offer for him.
The Rangers have never committed to developing Kakko who himself shares the blame for never battling past their stupidity the way Laffy did. At $2.4M there's no issue bringing him back.
He is extremely soft for a player with his size. If his offensive skills were jumping off the page it would be less of a factor. One, his quickness skating is non existent. Thus, he never gets to open spots where he can use his shot. He shoots it a ton but he rarely if ever finds open space to use it. I'm sure he can figure out how to do that. One thing I know is it's just not him with retards Zibanejad and Kreider. Only Buchnevich could figure out how to play with those dumbasses. Mike as I said before needs to immediately be taken off the first PP unit and replaced by Lafreniere. Mike no balls needs to figure out how to score at even strength again.
