Rangers' Kaapo Kakko searching for answers to explain disappointing season

Kaapo Kakko turns 23 on Tuesday. And while that still seems relatively young, the Rangers forward is in his fifth NHL season, and his career just hasn’t taken off the way maybe the organization or the fans would have hoped.

Entering Monday’s game against Calgary at Madison Square Garden, the No. 2 pick overall in the 2019 draft had played in 31 games this season, tallying five goals and two assists. Those are clearly disappointing numbers, given how high expectations were after he put up career highs in goals (18), assists (22) and points (40) last season.

“Right now, I have five [goals],’’ Kakko told Newsday last week. “I hurt my knee a little bit and missed some games. But still, it's not that good.’’

When Peter Laviolette was introduced over the summer as the Rangers’ new coach, he promised to give opportunity to all the young forwards — Kakko, Alexis Lafreniere and Filip Chytil.

Following a strong preseason, Kakko started the regular season on what was supposed to be the top forward line, with center Mika Zibanejad and left wing Chris Kreider. But after scoring only one goal in the first 11 games, Kakko was dropped to the third line.

A left knee injury suffered in late November kept him sidelined for 21 games, and when he came back in mid-January, Kakko was once again placed on the top line. But that lasted only six games, before he was dropped to the third line again.

Kakko is mystified as to why he hasn’t had success.

“I always try to play as good as I can,’’ he said. “I felt last year was getting better and I was hoping this year was going to be better than last year. I've been trying to do all the same things better than last year. But you know, sometimes you can't do those things."

As a result, Kakko’s name has surfaced in trade speculation, with reports coming out that the Rangers are willing to listen to teams who might be interested in him. And with the team needing a third-line center in the wake of Chytil’s season-ending injury (suspected to be a concussion), there has been chatter on social media of dealing Kakko to Anaheim in some sort of package that would include bringing back winger Frank Vatrano, a 2022 trade deadline acquisition by GM Chris Drury who worked well with Kreider and Zibanejad, and possibly center Adam Henrique.

Kakko said he isn’t paying any attention to that.

“It's better if you don't think about it,’’ he said. “I'm not watching at all, actually.’’

As often happens with Kakko, his analytics generally are good, both with Kreider and Zibanejad and with his current linemates, Jonny Brodzinski and rookie Will Cuylle.

But it’s just that in terms of actual goals produced, there aren’t that many (five in 17 games with Kreider and Zibanejad, three in five games with Cuylle and Brodzinski).

Laviolette, though, pointed out that the inability to convert chances into goals is a problem the entire team has had all season.

“That's us in general,’’ Laviolette said. “You don't need to throw [Kakko] into that group. You can throw a bunch of us into that group. We generate [chances], we feel like we get good looks, we feel like we out-chance [opponents] on most nights . . . so there are things that we talk about.

"He's part of that. We’ve talked to him about it, with regard to the offensive zone and things that maybe we can do better. So those conversations do happen.’’

Laviolette insists that Kakko is playing hard and “doing things the right way.’’

“He seems to be gaining a little bit more confidence,’’ Laviolette said. “All that seems to be going in the right direction.’’

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.