Haha

I mean their production has been much better at every level

You can just offersheet Kakko to the Kotkaniemi contract . Screw the rangers lol

Drury has played two f*cking games in the NHL. Kakko has 151.

Despite Kakko's relatively poor performance for a second overall pick, NHL mid-6er at 20 is much better than a AHL top-6er at 22.

If Canes truly wanted to pry out such promising future talents out of Rangers it will cost them Necas, Jarvis, Suzuki and a 1st.

Actually scratch that, it will cost you Sebastian Aho or Jaccob Slavin. Just because NYR has no reason to trade those guys for futures. They will require established NHL talent to use these guys as trade chips.

lets be real, if drury was on the rangers he would be middle 6. the canes r just too loaded. plus he has lit up the AHL. maybe throw in a pick but jarvis is the same age as laf and producing better and negates the different between kakko and drury

I doubt it. NYR is offensively about as loaded as Canes are (at least in terms of wingers), they need proper NHL top-6 centers which Drury despite his performance in AHL is not, at least yet. They'd absolutely be looking towards Necas first. Established NHL talent is that they will require, why should they move extremely potential assets to assets of same actual level at best with much lesser potential. Doesn't make sense to me, at all.

NYR trades those guys only to get better now, not because they need a new set of futures, because in terms of futures it's hard to get much more potential ones than Laffy and Kakko. They're top two picks of consecutive drafts ffs.

Not good enough to justify a straight swap, Rangers are doing well enough to allow their talent to develop. They were top picks for a reason and Drury and Jarvis don't have close to the ceiling. Kaako and Laf are both only 20 and have both basically produced as 3rd liners. They still have 2 years before they can start being called busts. Drury especially has barely even broken into the NHL at 22

Why trade for Lafreniere and Kakko if you think that your players has performed better?

higher ceiling but the other players have preformed better

The old adage rings true once again:

"your team's prospects are probably worth a lot more to you than to other teams"

You think the Canes would give up one of the best defenseman in the NHL or one of the best players in the league for 2 kids that are struggling? Can I have what you're smoking?

I absolutely don't think that, I never said I did. But even less I think NYR would move their highest level of potential assets for anything short of that. That's my whole point.

They'd deal them only to get better. Those two, Aho and Slavin, would be the only ones from Canes that would be good enough return to give that ceiling of theirs up, in a sense.

This is highly debatable.

That ceiling they both once had isn't there anymore. Kakko isn't going to dominate the league, Laf becomes less and less likely to do it every day. They're not what they were when they were drafted.

Drury makes a counter offer of Libor Hajek for Aho with 50% retention plus a 1st round pick.

That's way too early to say, they've had two and a half and one and a half years in the league respectively in very much changing roles as NYR has been thinking which way to go with the team. But I don't see for instance Lafreniere's ceiling dropping in 1,5 years from one of the most potential LWs in the league to a okay-ish top-6er just because ahead of him in the Rangers' system there is probably the best LW in the league in Panarin and one of the breakout scorers of the year in Kreider.

Their great performances do hinder the potential opportunities for Laffy and Kakko to shrine through, and respectively as NYR is looking once again a legit playoff team they need to weigh out team success over young player development, too. Which is probably the only reason why even hypothetically they might use the likes of Lafreniere or Kakko as trade chips to get better sooner. Plus to be fair NYR has been terrible in developing forward talent in latest years too.

To sum it up, in my opinion the only circumstance where it makes sense for Rangers to trade Laffy or Kakko is the one where they get immensely better out of it in the short term. If they should trade both, then the asset coming back must be absolutely elite one, because they're giving up so much potential away.

I highly disagree.

This is Kakko's 3rd year in this league? Necas has also spent 3 years in this league. I know who I'd take, and it's not the struggling Finn. Maybe you think Necas is a bad comparison because he was older when he came across. Let's compare him to the 1st overall pick in that draft, Jack Hughes, who has also had a sheltered role with a worse. Look at the difference between them. Kakko very specifically is VERY damaged goods.

Laf... for Lafreniere I do get it a little more, but that doesn't mean that he's still got that league-destroying potential, that ship is sailing a little further from shore a little further every day.

The fact they're damaged because of how NYR play doesn't change the fact their damaged. They're not as valuable as they were as when they were drafted and you really need to lower the expectations here.

Lol

I am. If they were, say 2022 first or second overall picks, I don't think anyone would deal them for Necas only.

Also Necas started in NHL at 20. Kakko was 18, came straight through Finland. If anything he would've needed a year in AHL, similar to Necas actually

*takes deep breath at the sight of yet another uninformed opinion on Laf and Kakko by someone who clearly doesn't watch or follow the Rangers*

Until recently, Laf was playing bottom 6 minutes and no PP time. Despite this, he's second on the team behind Kreider in even strength goals and has only been in the top six for the past month. Stutzle and most other recent top 5 picks, who Laf is often compared to, are playing for rebuilding teams where they get way more opportunity with more ice time, PP time, and playing with their teams' other top players. Laf is on a team with veteran talent up front that does not need an inexperienced 20 year old to carry its offense, so they have sheltered him to this point. And it has paid off - they are right behind the Canes in the division. Laf is starting to be trusted more, and with that, he is providing results.

Kakko - everyone's other favorite whipping boy - has been hurt the past few weeks but before that, he was on a tear. He has been playing exceptionally well all season but when he went on his crazy points streak people who don't watch the Rangers finally shut up for a bit. He's been in a top 6 role playing mostly with Panarin and Strome and, wouldn't you know, you can have an impact without finding your name on the score sheet every night. He's been a possession monster and starts plays that generate great offensive chances or goals that he doesn't get on the score sheet for.

Your Hughes example didn't have anything behind it - he struggled just as much as Kakko and Laf in his first year and he was branded the biggest bust since Yakupov. Now he's a #1 center and making $8 mil a year - massive overreaction by everyone around the league, don't you think?

Also, these guys are 20 years old. I cannot even fathom how bad people on this site would be as actual GMs if you're all ready to write off 20 year olds as busts and trade them because they don't score at a point per game clip before they can legally drink 😂

As someone who follows the Rangers closely and watches almost every game, I can tell you that I'm not worried about Laf and Kakko. I know everyone likes to pile on (don't know where the ire comes from... guess people really hate the Rangers??) but these are players who had a horrific coach their rookie (and for Kakko sophomore too) seasons and are just now being entrusted with top 6 roles, and they're producing. What more do you want from them?

I just posted a novel above this that gets into this a bit but to further your point, Kakko and Laf entered a team with a ton of forward depth so they were not paired with high offensive players, and in their rookie seasons, had a horrendous coach in David Quinn who couldn't handle player development. They're in top 6 roles now finally and they're producing.

These people just want to hate the Rangers because we got lucky two years in a row with lotto picks and they got resentful and wished for us to have busts. Too bad we're right behind the Canes in the standings, and that's even without Laf and Kakko at their full potential!

As I said, I started with Necas, then compared him to Hughes, who was younger. Want a comparison? His numbers are worse than KOTKANIEMI... he's not working. At all, I doubt know how you can debate that.

Necas at this point holds more value as a 23 year old 50+ point scorer than either Ranger does

Indeed.

It's a luxury tax of sorts - we've become accustomed to the idea that top3 picks should instantly become top-6 forwards/top-4 defensemen in the league right off the bat and if that doesn't happen they become busts, or "damaged goods" as Caniac here put it.

Memory is a fickle thing, and in a majority of times on this site when a player becomes established as a NHLer in a certain role, the prospect status / potential of them also tends to fade away, usually after the rookie year. And now because Kakko, who has spent majority of his two and a half years in Rangers as a third liner, at the respective age of 18-20, is set to become a career third liner.

This goes hand in hand by overvaluing prospects over established talent. It's so commonplace here. I'm willing to bet that should you suggest swapping Kakko for instance to Canes' best prospect in Scott Morrow, you're going to be hearing lot of Canes fans demanding that Rangers add to the pile due to Morrow's excessive potential due to his performance being close to similar to Makar in NCAA.

You're talking about a 21 year old like his career is about to be ending in two years time...

Totally agree. I get that the league gets younger every year but my god, people have become downright unbearable with their expectations.

The cringe take that always gets me is "the Rangers can't develop their prospects" as a result of the 18-21 year olds not producing lofty numbers, which is because of their sheltered roles due to us having depth above them. But those same people will forever call out Edmonton (and rightfully so, in my opinion) for rushing their young players into top line roles and ruining them.

So which is it?! Drives me nuts haha.