Winners and Losers of the Rangers' Kaapo Kakko Trade to Seattle

Amid their turmoil, the New York Rangers traded 2019 No. 2 overall draft pick Kaapo Kakko to the Seattle Kraken Wednesday in return for defenseman Will Borgen, a 2025 third-round pick and a 2025 sixth-round pick.

Kakko, 23, heads to Seattle with 61 goals and 131 points in 330 career games, and four goals and 14 points in 30 games this season. He was scratched last Sunday against the Blues, and he voiced his displeasure to reporters.

"I was surprised," he said. "I know you've got to do something as the coach when you're losing games, but it's easy to pick the young guy and put him out. That's how I feel."

Kakko had been mentioned in trade talks such as a potential acquisition of Jake Guentzel that obviously never panned out, and the writing was on the wall after the healthy scratch and his follow-up comments.

Is the return good enough? Where does Borgen fit in New York and Kakko in Seattle? Did Rangers general manager Chris Drury make the right call?

Here are the winners and losers of the deal.

The trade writing had been on the wall between prior talks involving the winger, the scratch, the low time on ice and the overall need for change plaguing the Rangers.

They had to do something more than trading captain Jacob Trouba, and it seems Drury wants to go in a new direction with the core.

It's just that this trade doesn't significantly improve New York's roster. It needs sturdy defense. Borgen's got a goal and an assist on the season, and his on-ice goal differential has been a whopping -19 despite a reduction in minutes this year.

He's been a decent enough bottom-pairing defenseman in years past, plus this is a low-risk acquisition considering his contract expires at the end of the season.

It's not the end of the world for the Rangers, but it doesn't exactly turn their season around. And they're officially throwing in the towel on Kakko's potential.

Kakko's goal-scoring potential hasn't materialized as quickly as anyone would have liked for a No. 2 overall draft pick.

It's understandable that, to some degree, the Rangers had poured more energy and playing time into other players on their competitive roster.

But Kakko has had great underlying numbers and could thrive in a change-of-scenery opportunity in an elevated role. Following his scratch, he led the Rangers in shots on goal and expected goals percentage while being last in time on ice in Monday's loss to the Predators.

Since the start of the 2022-23 season, the Finn has a higher even strength primary points per 60 than Seth Jarvis, Mats Zuccarello and Joel Eriksson Ek among others.

The Kraken are struggling to score and are an analytically savvy franchise. Perhaps they can figure out the correct usage to make Kakko's sound play translate to more goals.

If Kakko really starts to thrive, he could be a solid piece of the puzzle in Seattle.

Shane Wright has been centering the Kraken's third line and you can imagine some chemistry brewing between the two high draft picks with chips on their shoulders.

Kakko's career-high season was 2022-23 when he had 18 goals and 40 points. That type of production would be a huge help to Seattle, who could use another goal-scoring forward to join the likes of Matty Beniers and Wright.

There had been considerable speculation that the Rangers were open to moving Kakko last summer, especially for Jake Guentzel. It didn't seem like they wanted to commit long-term given his pending RFA status.

They couldn't get anything done over the summer, and now the roster return is a third-pairing defenseman. You wonder if the front office should have pushed harder in the offseason.

Then you've got head coach Peter Laviolette, the latest of three Rangers coaches to scratch Kakko at some point. While his unrealized potential has been frustrating, he's hardly the worst player on the ice for the Rangers these days.

This was a low sell on a No. 2 draft pick after an arguably mismanaged development path. We'll see how his development continues in Seattle.