Player Discussion Kaapo Kakko: Part IV

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Harbour Dog

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Jul 16, 2015
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Kakko is playing solitaire in his apartment tonight.

tenor.gif
 

CupSeeker

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Jan 28, 2021
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Bitetto has worn out his welcome. And Blackwell is suprisingly bad in his own zone. He's an effective grinder but clueless on how to move the puck out of his own zone. This is a bad team dressed tonight and only down by one. Igor!
 

Chimpradamus

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Feb 16, 2006
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Kakko has 26 points (12G 14A), half of them on the PP, in his first 80 games. Not exactly riveting stuff. He might look better, but the production is still not there. Oh well, if there's anything this team has it's time and patience to let the young players develop.
 
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rdhstlr23

Registered User
Feb 21, 2013
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Kakko has 26 points (12G 14A), half of them on the PP, in his first 80 games. Not exactly riveting stuff. He might look better, but the production is still not there. Oh well, if there's anything this team has it's time and patience to let the young players develop.

Agree. That’s my beef with Kakko.

He “looks” good and better. All of his analytics agree with that. The production hasn’t come yet, but...that’s the most important piece, right?

And sometimes it doesn’t come. Sometimes a guy’s confidence gets pushed, or they change their games up to become this guy that can hang in the NHL, by doing the things to keep a job, not the creative stuff that made him a blue chip prospect.

My biggest concern with Kakko is that he will never be the player we all thought we were getting when he was drafted. Drafting a 60-65pt player is nice (quoting what I see here and on Twitter when people talk of Kakko), but that wasn’t the Bill of goods sold when he was drafted last year.

He was an immediate impact player. He was a Calder candidate. He was a franchise altering player. He hasn’t shown any of those traits, so far.

When we speculate about a trade for a guy like Eichel, and Kakko is “hang the phone up”, I see that as a missed opportunity. I get he’s on an ELC and you control him for a bit, but man...

The Covid piece stinks. You were hoping to see him to start to cash in on these good, but zero point producing, games. This isn’t his fault, but it’s one of those things where you’re like...is Zibanejad feeling ill effects of this still? Will it take Kakko that long? How long will he miss? Etc.

Before you know it, he’s played half the season and you’re on YR3 and his 20-21 age season with serious expectations.
 

Rongomania

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Dec 31, 2017
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If this wasn’t just a contact tracing thing, which it seems like it wasn’t, he’s probably out for another what, ten days?

That blows. The kid was looking so damn good before this. Hopefully the team is playing better overall when he comes back. I also think there could be a domino effect down the road - Kakko starts scoring with some regularity and maybe he'll be the one who can get more points out of Laf.

really want to see a Laf/Chytil/Kak line
 

HockeyBasedNYC

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Aug 2, 2005
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Need KK update.

Heard Sam during the call said he hasn’t had any symptoms so whether it’s tracing or testing that is good to hear.

Hope he is back in tomorrow
 
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Amazing Kreiderman

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Apr 11, 2011
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Need KK update.

Heard Sam during the call said he hasn’t had any symptoms so whether it’s tracing or testing that is good to hear.

Hope he is back in tomorrow

Kakko probably has to spend 10 days on the COVID list as part of the quarantine window. If it was a false positive, it would be 72 hours, like Miller.

Kakko was added to the COVID list last week Saturday, so he would have 3 days left before being allowed back on the team (again, based on the COVID timelines the NHL has mentioned before).

I hope Kakko is back sooner, but I'm counting on Monday-Tuesday
 

Peltz

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Oct 4, 2019
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Agree. That’s my beef with Kakko.

He “looks” good and better. All of his analytics agree with that. The production hasn’t come yet, but...that’s the most important piece, right?

And sometimes it doesn’t come. Sometimes a guy’s confidence gets pushed, or they change their games up to become this guy that can hang in the NHL, by doing the things to keep a job, not the creative stuff that made him a blue chip prospect.

My biggest concern with Kakko is that he will never be the player we all thought we were getting when he was drafted. Drafting a 60-65pt player is nice (quoting what I see here and on Twitter when people talk of Kakko), but that wasn’t the Bill of goods sold when he was drafted last year.

He was an immediate impact player. He was a Calder candidate. He was a franchise altering player. He hasn’t shown any of those traits, so far.

When we speculate about a trade for a guy like Eichel, and Kakko is “hang the phone up”, I see that as a missed opportunity. I get he’s on an ELC and you control him for a bit, but man...

The Covid piece stinks. You were hoping to see him to start to cash in on these good, but zero point producing, games. This isn’t his fault, but it’s one of those things where you’re like...is Zibanejad feeling ill effects of this still? Will it take Kakko that long? How long will he miss? Etc.

Before you know it, he’s played half the season and you’re on YR3 and his 20-21 age season with serious expectations.
He's still young. He could easily still be a franchise altering player.
 

Amazing Kreiderman

Registered User
Apr 11, 2011
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The franchise altering players usually show that by now.

People with fewer than 30 points in their D+1 season:

Kessel
Levacalier
Couturier
Shanahan
Barkov
Seguin
Lindholm
Hughes
Nedved
Doan
Draisaitl
Thornton

I'm not too worried yet. Yeah, I am frustrated that he hasn't produced more early on, and wish we had a little more to cheer for the last few weeks but anything is possible.
 
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Harbour Dog

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Jul 16, 2015
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Also, I don't think it's a stretch to say that the only forwards that have been better when they're in the lineup are Panarin and Chytil.

Kakko took a step and was a dominating force for those few games before he was put on the protocol list. Him, Strome, and Lafreniere flatout embarassed New Jersey's top line when they got a chance to match up against them.

I really feel like I am watching different games than a large percentage of the fanbase.

edit - ugh, and this just highlights that our best three forwards have been the only ones to miss significant time... brutal.
 
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