Former Rangers defenseman thrilled to reunite with Kaapo Kakko in Seattle: ‘such a good dude’
Though he was drafted by the Boston Bruins, Ryan Lindgren played the first 387 games of his NHL career with the New York Rangers. So, you can imagine it’s been a bit of an adjustment to be traded to new team in March and then to sign with yet another in July.
After all that stability in New York, the heart-and-soul defenseman has been part of three organizations in the past five months or so.
This latest transition, after he signed a four-year, $18 million contract with the Seattle Kraken at the start of NHL free agency July 1, should be somewhat easier for Lindgren. A big reason is that he is now reunited with good friend and former Rangers teammate Kaapo Kakko.
“He is one of my favorite guys I played with in my career, just such a good dude,” Lindgren said earlier this week. “Everyone loves him, such a hard-working, great player. As soon as he went to Seattle last year, he really took off and played well. I’m excited to be back playing with him and really excited to see him again.”
Though Lindgren played five games with the Rangers in the second half of the 2018-19 season, he and Kakko were rookies together on Broadway in 2019-20, after the Rangers selected Kakko with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2019 draft. Each played important roles helping the Rangers reach the Eastern Conference Final in 2022 and 2024.
They were teammates for nearly six full seasons in New York, until Kakko was traded to the Kraken in December for a package that included defenseman Will Borgen. Less than three months later, the Rangers traded Lindgren to the Colorado Avalanche along with forward Jimmy Vesey in exchange for forward Juuso Parssinen and defenseman Calvin de Haan.
As Lindgren said, Kakko’s production improved in Seattle, where he averaged nearly four minutes more TOI per game (17:03) and had 30 points (10 goals, 20 assists) in 49 games after the trade. The 24-year-old is a restricted free agent and filed for salary arbitration with a hearing date still to be decided.
Related: How Adam Fox helped 2 former Rangers teammates get ‘overpaid’ in NHL free agency
Ryan Lindgren was ‘sad’ to leave Rangers, but appreciates new NHL opportunities
Lindgren spent most of his six seasons with the Rangers skating on the top defense pair with Adam Fox. Over 18 games (and another seven in the Stanley Cup Playoffs) with the Avalanche, Lindgren played in the top four of their defense corps, and averaged about a minute less TOI than with the Rangers at 19:00 per game.
His role with the Kraken should be similar as it was with the Avalanche. Lindgren’s expected to be in the top-four, though Vince Dunn likely will remain on the left side of the top pair along side Adam Larsson. That means Lindgren should be on the left side of 2024 Stanley Cup champion Brandon Montour on a shutdown pairing.
Lindgren said he understands that the preseason will be an important time for him to create chemistry with his new teammates. And that’s a far cry of how he and Fox played off one another with the intimate knowledge they had for each other’s tendencies, and strengths and weaknesses.
“I played with ‘Foxy’ for the majority of my NHL career; that was a lot of fun,” Lindgren explained. “Now it’s time to move on and play with someone new. It starts right in training camp. Everyone kind of seems like they play with everyone throughout camp. You just try to build chemistry, see what works with guys, try to figure it out, whether it’s in practices or games. I’m really excited for that opportunity.”
Lindgren never wanted to leave the Rangers, and hoped he’d work out a new contract to avoid free agency. Instead, the Rangers traded the 2022-23 Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award winner and embarked on a major shakeup of their defense corps, which culminated this week when they signed free agent Vladislav Gavrikov to a seven-year, $49 million contract and then traded K’Andre Miller.
“At first, you’re very sad to leave a team, but you go to another team and realize, just meeting everyone and we start playing games, it’s a blast,” Lindgren offered. “It was a lot of fun to do that in Colorado. Now finding out I get to go to Seattle to start that journey all over again, meet a bunch of great, new people and start fresh, I’m really looking forward to it.”
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