The trade
Rangers get: Will Borgen, a 2025 third-round pick and a 2025 sixth-round pick.
Kraken get: Kaapo Kakko
#NYR have acquired defenseman Will Borgen, a 2025 Third-Round pick and a 2025 Sixth-Round pick in exchange for Kaapo Kakko. pic.twitter.com/4OTAZWuFBs
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) December 19, 2024
Harman Dayal: Kaapo Kakko’s days with the Rangers seemed numbered after he expressed public frustration for being healthy scratched. The Kraken pounced quickly and have made a shrewd gamble here. Kakko isn’t going to develop into the offensive game-breaker that the industry expected when he was drafted No. 2 in 2019, but he’s got a high floor as a young, serviceable top-nine winger.
Kakko is defensively responsible, excels at retrieving pucks and wins battles along the walls. Early in the season, he provided strong complementary value on the Rangers’ third line with Filip Chytil and Will Cuylle. That trio controlled 61 percent of expected goals and outscored opponents 13-2 in nearly 200 five-on-five minutes together. Kakko is two seasons removed from scoring 18 goals and 40 points and has been clicking at around a half-a-point-per-game this season, which is a solid rate considering nearly all of that production comes at even strength.
How much upside does Kakko have to break out with a fresh start? He hasn’t shown a ton of offensive creativity or playmaking chops, plus this is his sixth NHL season, so I wouldn’t be holding my breath that a huge offensive leap is coming. I’m not convinced he has a dynamic enough offensive skill set to be a top-six driver. But he’s got the tools and experience to thrive as a complementary middle-six winger who can provide legitimate two-way value.
The key for Seattle is that it didn’t give up much. Will Borgen was likely going to walk in free agency because the Kraken have Adam Larsson and Brandon Montour locked up long-term. Borgen would have likely fetched a modest futures-based return — general manager Ron Francis did well to instead turn his pending UFA trade chip (plus a couple of picks) into a young middle-six winger.
I don’t think New York got enough for Kakko, but Borgen has a legitimate chance of finding success with the Rangers. The 27-year-old right-shot defender has been a steady, underrated player since arriving in Seattle. He drove solid, albeit unspectacular results over the last two seasons next to Jamie Oleksiak on the Kraken’s second pair, but has been relegated to the bottom pair this season because of Montour’s arrival on the right side. His results haven’t been pretty this year, but his long-term track record in Seattle points to a legitimately useful player.
Borgen is big (6-foot-3), competitive and physical, ranking top-50 among all NHL defensemen in hits this season. He’ll give New York some of the bite and snarl it lost with Jacob Trouba’s departure. Borgen is also mobile and skilled enough that he won’t be an outright liability with the puck on breakouts. The Rangers desperately needed to upgrade their defensive depth and Borgen will unquestionably give them a boost. He’s best served playing a third-pair role but his top-four experience does give New York valuable flexibility to move him up the lineup in case of injuries.
It’s also worth noting that there’s a shortage of defensemen available on the trade market and a surplus of teams hunting for blue-line help, so while Borgen seems like a disappointing centerpiece for Kakko, the difficulty of finding competent right-shot defenders has to be factored in.
Rangers grade: C+
Kraken grade: A-
Shayna Goldman: The Rangers have lost 11 of their last 14 games. And along the way, they lost to the 32nd-place team in the NHL twice — first, it was the Blackhawks last week, and on Tuesday night, it was the newly-crowned 32nd-place Predators. So it’s not entirely surprising that management felt the need to do something to shake the team up.
Kakko never lived up to his ceiling in New York. He showed glimpses of potential — from his ability to protect the puck and maintain possession to buy his teammates time and space, to his defensive development — but hasn’t performed consistently enough. He never became the driver of his own line, but instead was a pretty solid facilitator in the middle six. But on the flip side, the Rangers didn’t maximize his strengths or foster his development either. Maybe the team felt he was expendable because they have other wingers in their pipeline, like Gabe Perreault and Brennan Othmann. Then again, the team hasn’t exactly crushed it in the development department over the years to inspire a ton of confidence in the future, either.
For Seattle, Kakko is the type of reclamation project it should be targeting. The best-case scenario is that Kakko turns into a more reliable top-six scoring threat, which is exactly what the Kraken’s roster needs. The worst case is that they bring in a 23-year-old third-liner who doesn’t really progress past this level. And there’s a chance that happens, since the Kraken aren’t beaming with stars who can kick his game up a notch. Still, these types of bets have worked out for them before — just look at how Eeli Tolvanen’s career turned around after Seattle claimed him on waivers. This one is obviously a little less low risk, since they had to give up players and picks to add Kakko, but maybe it’ll have an even higher reward.
The Kraken have accumulated a lot of draft capital over the years, so they can afford to send New York a third-rounder and a sixth. Those picks are valuable to the Rangers, whether they use them to replenish their pipeline or for further trades.
Borgen’s value dwindled this year, after Brandon Montour’s arrival bumped him to the third pair. That made him a bit more expandable, and the Rangers could use the help on defense. Jacob Trouba wasn’t adequately replaced, K’Andre Miller is sidelined, and the rest of the team is just underperforming.
Borgen showed he had the chops to be a solid shutdown defenseman last year alongside Jamie Oleksiak. But he has taken a step back this season — maybe Oleksiak elevated his game that much and he’s struggled without him, or maybe having a rotating cast of partners has held him back.
The Rangers need someone who can help limit the damage in their own zone, retrieve pucks and push play back up the ice. Borgen may be up to the task, and his mobility could click in Peter Laviolette’s system. The Rangers may have addressed a need, but they overpaid to do it. One addition won’t stabilize this team, or even this blue line.
Rangers grade: C
Kraken grade: B+
(Photo: Codie McLachlan / Getty Images)
