Supplemental Prospect Rankings: Kaapo Kakko

[Harbour Dog]

1. Alexis Lafreniere (F)
2. Igor Shesterkin (G)
3. Nils Lundkvist (RD)
4. Vitali Kravtsov (F)
5. K'Andre Miller (LD)
6. Braden Schneider (RD)
7. Matthew Robertson (LD)
8. Julien Gauthier (F)
9. Morgan Barron (F)
10. Zac Jones (LD)
11. Tarmo Reunanen (LD)
12. Karl Henriksson (F)
13. Will Cuylle (F)
14. Libor Hajek (LD)
15. Tyler Wall (G)
16. Lauri Pajuniemi (F)
17. Evan Vierling (F)
18. Brett Berard (F)
19. Patrick Khodorenko (F)
20. Oliver Tarnstrom (F)​

Click to read more...

 

[Harbour Dog]

It's very tight between him and Shesty for me.

Went with #3, but I can definitely see a strong argument either way.

I do think that Kakko has more value league-wide, partly because of position and contract, but as of now, if I was told that one of them has a hall-of-fame career and I needed to guess which; it would be Shesty.

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

Tough call between him and Shestyorkin. Based on upside and impact, I'd say Kakko at 2.

 

[ElLeetch]

I'd have KK at #2, Fox at #4, and Lindgren at #8.

 

[bbny]

3rd. Shesterkin is that good.

 

[mas0764]

I love Shesterkin but would he go second overall in a draft? I don’t think so. Kakko is 2.

 

[bl02]

When in NYR history could we have called the level of player with the potential Kakko as our number 3 prospect? Very exciting times.

 

[Savant]

Can’t put him above Igor. 3 for me, but that is far from an indictment

 

[Fitzy]

I think Kakko ends up a solid 30-30-60 player, and Shesty becomes a multiple time Vezina winner. He may almost be 25, but I'll take ten years of peak Igor.

 

[Brooklyn Rangers Fan]

Whoof, that’s a tough call between 2 and 3. Went with 2 by a hair.

 

[Crease]

I'll go 2 on the basis that a premier forward has a bigger impact than a premier goalie, IMO.

 

[Machinehead]

Still #2.

Igor is about to be 25. I'm having a little trouble with the whole prospect thing with him.

 

[Anthony5967]

That top-10 is just filthy

 

[Black Tank]

I'm going 2. That first year should have showed KK how easy it is to f*** things up in the NHL and what it takes to succeed. If he can incorporate that learning, then he's got a huge leg up on other prospects.

 

[EdJovanovski]

3
I think Shesterkin is going to be the best goalie in the league, I don’t think Kakko is going to be that close to the best winger in the league.

 

[pld459666]

As good as Igor is, I expect Kakko to be better

 

[Chytilmania]

We should just rank the team Igor and younger and see what we come up with.

 

[Inferno]

Kakko 5 years from now is a very different play than kakko we just saw this past year...can't really compare him with shesterkin.

 

[kovazub94]

I'm very high on Shesterkin. Since being drafted he consistently put up a level of performance (huge body of work too) to be considered the best goalie prospect outside of the NHL (don't mistake with just one of the best) and then he did the same in 2020 with the Rangers.

Not challenging opinions that Kakko should be ranked higher but I thought it would be a closer call in the voting. What do I know...

 

[Gospel of Prospal]

I mean before we drafted Lafreniere, Kakko was the best prospect we ever had. He didn't have the best year and Shesterkin did phenomenally, but I'd still go with Kakko.

 

[Edge]

I put him at 3 simply because I just don't think I can keep Shesterkin out of that second spot.

At every level, including the NHL, the kid has accomplished just about everything you'd ask a prospect to do.

Kakko has a chance to be one of the best forwards in his generation. Shesterkin has a legit chance to be the best goalie though.

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

I'll go 2 on the basis that a premier forward has a bigger impact than a premier goalie, IMO.

This is my thought process as well. I said this many times when discussing Lundqvist. The impact of an elite goalie over a good goalie is not nearly as big as the impact of an elite winger/center over a good winger/center.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

This is my thought process as well. I said this many times when discussing Lundqvist. The impact of an elite goalie over a good goalie is not nearly as big as the impact of an elite winger/center over a good winger/center.

How do you figure? We replace Hank with someone like idk Jonas Hiller and then add another Marian Gaborik or Rick Nash and you think we make the finals in 2012 or 2014? I don't.

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

How do you figure? We replace Hank with someone like idk Jonas Hiller and then add another Marian Gaborik or Rick Nash and you think we make the finals in 2012 or 2014? I don't.

Jonas Hiller isn't a good goalie.

Replacing Henrik Lundqvist and Mats Zuccarello with Corey Crawford and Artemi Panarin in 2015 makes us a better team.

If you need elite goalies to win cups, how come we have seen Antti Niemi, Matt Murray, Cam Ward, Chris Osgood, Braden Holtby and Jordan Binnington win cups?

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

Jonas Hiller isn't a good goalie.

Replacing Henrik Lundqvist and Mats Zuccarello with Corey Crawford and Artemi Panarin in 2015 makes us a better team.

If you need elite goalies to win cups, how come we have seen Antti Niemi, Matt Murray, Cam Ward, Chris Osgood, Braden Holtby and Jordan Binnington win cups?

You don’t need them necessarily but one elite forward doesn’t have more impact than one elite goalie. All those goalies played on great all around teams.