Why Rangers could face seller’s remorse over Kaapo Kakko, Vitali Kravtsov in 2025-26
No matter how you look at it, the New York Rangers’ run of making a top-10 selection in the NHL Draft each year from 2017-20 will go down as a disappointment. How much of one is still to be determined – and the 2025-26 season has to potential to make it considerably worse.
That’s because Kaapo Kakko, the No. 2 overall pick in 2019, enters his first full season with the Seattle Kraken after showing signs that he could be a more productive player following a trade with the Rangers in mid-December. Additionally, Vitali Kravtsov, the No. 9 overall pick in 2018, signed a one-year contract with the Vancouver Canucks after a successful run in the KHL.
Including Kakko and Kravtsov, three of the four top-10 selections the Rangers made over that four-year stretch are no longer with the organization.
Former general manager Jeff Gorton salvaged his misfire on bust Lias Andersson (No. 7 overall in 2017) by turning him into the second-round pick in 2020 that became rising power forward Will Cuylle, who scored 20 goals last season.
Alexis Lafreniere, the No. 1 overall selection in 2020, is the lone top-10 Rangers pick from 2017-20 remaining on the Rangers roster. He’s been inconsistent, but hope remains that the soon-to-be 24-year-old can recapture his 28-goal form from two seasons ago.
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Traded by Rangers, Kaapo Kakko more productive with Kraken
When it comes to Kakko and Kravtsov, however, there’s nothing current GM Chris Drury can do other than sit back and watch. Drury, it should be noted, had little choice but to deal away both players when it became clear that their time on Broadway passed its expiration date.
Drury did manage to bring back valuable right-shot defenseman Will Borgen in the Kakko trade. So, there’s that.
At 24 years old, though, Kakko’s potential ceiling remains high. And the Kraken appear more willing to feed into that potential. He averaged an NHL career-high 17:03 TOI after the trade last season, nearly four minutes more per game than with the Rangers.
Kakko also averaged 0.6 points in 49 games with the Kraken after averaging 0.4 with the Rangers in 330 games over six-plus seasons. The Rangers received plenty of criticism over Kakko’s lack of development during his time on Broadway, though it’s not exactly like he thrived when given a chance to play up in the lineup with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider. Kakko’s tenure in New York, however, was spent largely on the third line with minimal power-play opportunities.
Seattle wasted little time in finding out what it had, placing Kakko on a top-six line with Matty Berniers and Jaden Schwartz and giving him significant power-play time. The result? Ten goals and 20 assists in 49 games, including three power-play goals – a career high.
Kakko still doesn’t shoot the puck enough – he didn’t have more than two shots on goal in any of his final 16 games last season – which is a problem that dates to his Rangers tenure and might prevent him from ever becoming a top offensive player in the NHL. Yet that problem remains correctable.
Again, it was clear that Kakko’s time with the Blueshirts was up. He had grown frustrated with the organization and publicly complained that he was being scapegoated after being scratched from a game Dec. 17 amid an ugly stretch for the Rangers. The Rangers traded Kakko the next day, receiving Will Borgen, whose steady, physical play helped stabilize the defense corps, along with third- and sixth-round picks.
Where the Rangers didn’t see a player worth investing in anymore, the Kraken signed Kakko to a three-year, $13.575 million contract this summer.
The danger for the Rangers is that the light goes on for a player who was regarded as a near-equal prospect to eventual No. 1 pick and current New Jersey Devils star Jack Hughes going into the 2019 draft. The Rangers signed Borgen a five-year, $20.5 million contract extension last season, but he’ll be a footnote if Kakko breaks out in the Pacific Northwest.
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Vitali Kravtsov’s unexpected NHL return with Canucks followed his best KHL season
While Kakko has actually shown that he can produce some in the NHL, Kravtsov is a much bigger wild card. Like Andersson in 2017, the Rangers’ selection of Kravtsov at ninth overall in 2018 failed miserably. The talented forward from Russia proved to be a sullen enigma, who appeared immature and mentally and emotionally unprepared to succeed in North America.
His decision to leave the Rangers and play in the KHL instead of accept an assignment to Hartford of the American Hockey League never sat well with the organization. Kravtsov played just 48 games over two seasons with the Rangers before they traded him to the Canucks on Feb. 25, 2023, for the underwhelming return of undersized forward Will Lockwood and a seventh-round pick.
He played 16 games with the Canucks and headed back to Russia to play the past two seasons. It appeared his NHL career was over after 64 games, six goals and 12 points.
So why should the Rangers worry about a player who inked a one-year, two-way contract for $775,000? For the same reason why Kakko could burn the club that drafted him: raw talent. With a powerful shot, outstanding hands and strong skating, there was a reason why the Rangers grabbed Kravtsov where they did in 2018. He’s coming off his best season in the KHL, with career highs of 27 goals and 31 assists in 66 games for Traktor in 2024-25.
The KHL isn’t the NHL, of course, but it’s also possible that Kravtsov has grown up, having seen how his shot at playing in the best hockey league in the world was slipping away.
The 25-year-old appears considerably less likely to make the Rangers regret dealing him away, but if he does develop into an effective player, they’ll essentially have nothing to show for it. But GM Chris Drury can’t be blamed for offloading the troublesome winger for pennies on the dollar. There was little to no market for Kravtsov at that time.
The reasons that led to the Rangers trading Kakko and Kravtsov were legitimate, and could end up being barriers to both players becoming highly-productive NHL forwards with any team. Kakko has yet to show the high-end scoring touch that he exhibited in Finland’s Liiga in 2018-19, his 18 goals in 2022-23 remain an NHL career high. And Kravtsov’s played one full NHL season to date.
Untapped ability, though, remains for both 20-somethings. Either player ascending to above-average status in 2025-26 will add fuel to longstanding perceptions that the Rangers struggle to develop young players (non-goaltenders, that is) into roster mainstays. That will be especially so if Lafreniere again struggles to completely break out in his sixth NHL season.
