The Maven is not super enthused about Kakko's new contract with the Rangers and here's why.
I'm afraid I'm not going to do hand-stands of ecstasy now that the Rangers have made a deal with Kaapo Kakko.
The Blueshirts signed the impending restricted free agent to a one-year pact for his $2.4 million qualifying offer. Big (sarcastic) deal.
At 23 years of age, Double K has been a poster boy for drafting failure.
The Maven vividly recalls the great debate over whether the number one pick should be Kakko or Jack Hughes.
New Jersey GM Tom Fitzgerald settled the issue by picking the American product Hughes and there's never been a twitch of regret in Newark.
Fitz's counterpart, Chris Drury, has seen enough of Kakko to understand that the once Flyin' Finn must be moved to a place where Hughes' enormous shadow does not engulf disappointing Double K anymore.
My whimsical buddy George Grimm says the best next-stop for Kakko should be as far from New York as possible; Seattle, Washington.
"The Kraken have a young goalie in their system named Niklas Kokko," Grimm has discovered in his deep research. "If the Kraken make the deal for Kakko then Kakko and Kokko would be a broadcaster's nightmare."
It also – once and for all – should mark the end Drury's bad dreams of the bad scouting that led Kakko to receive such a high, mistaken Draft rating!
(P.S. Too bad the Kraken don't have a player named Karl Cuckoo. Then there would be a goal by Kakko, assists from Kokko and Cuckoo!)