Kaapo Kakko

Finland Kaapo Kakko


Date of birth	February 13, 2001
place of birth	Turku , Finland
size	187 cm
Weight	82 kg

position	Right wing
number	# 24
Shot hand	Left

Draft

NHL Entry Draft	2019 , 1st round, 2nd position New York Rangers

Career stations

2017-2019	TPS Turku
since 2019	New York Rangers

Kaapo Kakko (born February 13, 2001 in Turku ) is a Finnish ice hockey player who has been under contract with the New York Rangers in the National Hockey League since July 2019 . The right winger is considered an outstanding talent in Finnish ice hockey and was selected in second place by the Rangers in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft . At the 2019 World Cup , he won the gold medal with the Finnish national team, having previously won the U18 and U20 world championship titles with the junior teams in his home country, making him the youngest player ever to combine these three titles.

Career

Kaapo Kakko was born in Turku and played in the youth department of the local TPS Turku from the age of seven . As a result, he went through the junior teams of the traditional Finnish club until he was used for the first time in the U20 in the A-Junioren-SM-liiga , the highest-ranking junior league in Finland, in the 2016/17 season . There the winger played regularly from the 2017/18 season, recorded 55 points in 38 games and thus became the top scorer of his team. In addition, he was honored as Rookie of the Year in the A-Junior SM-liiga with the Yrjö Hakala Award .

At the same time, Kakko made his debut for the professional division of TPS Turku in the Liiga in December 2017 and had made six appearances by the end of the season. With the beginning of the 2018/19 season he established himself in the top Finnish division, where he scored his 22nd goal of the season in March 2019, breaking the record for U18 players in the Liiga that had previously been set by Aleksander Barkov with 21 goals in the 2012 season / 13 had set up. A little later, he finished the season as TPS's top scorer and also placed himself among the ten best goal scorers in the Liiga.

All in all, Kakko is considered an outstanding talent in Finnish ice hockey and is considered a very promising talent for the 2019 NHL Entry Draft . In addition to his generally above-average technical abilities, his shot and his extraordinary physique, which could enable him to occupy the center position in the course of his career, are particularly emphasized. The Central Scouting Services of the National Hockey League (NHL) saw him as the number one European player in January 2019, while in the overall lists he was unanimously ranked second behind the US center Jack Hughes . Occasionally, however, the opinion was also expressed that Hughes was overtaken by Kakko in the course of the year, so that the Finn was also seen as a possible first overall draft pick . After all, he was considered in the draft in second position behind Hughes by the New York Rangers and given an entry contract by them in July 2019 . As part of the subsequent pre-season preparation, the attacker earned a place in the line-up of the Broadway Blueshirts and thus made his debut in the NHL in early October 2019. He finished his rookie season with 23 points and 66 games.

International

At the international level, Kakko played his first major tournament at the U18 World Cup in 2018 and promptly won the gold medal there with the Finnish selection. He himself recorded ten points and thus, together with Niklas Nordgren, became the top scorer of his team. In the following year, the attacker took part in the U20 World Cup 2019 with the U20 national team of his home country and also won the world championship title. In the final, at the age of 17, he was one of the youngest players in the tournament and scored the decisive 3-2 win against the USA .

A little later, Kakko was also on the ice for Finland's senior national team for the first time , winning the gold medal with her again at the 2019 World Cup . With six goals, he scored the most goals of his team and also became the youngest player to win the U18, U20 and men's world championship title. In this respect he surpassed Connor McDavid , who succeeded in doing this in 2016 at the age of 19.

Achievements and Awards

2018 Rookie of the Year of the A-Junior-SM-liiga (Yrjö Hakala Award)
2018 gold medal at the U18 Junior World Championship
2019 gold medal at the U20 World Junior Championship
2019 gold medal at the world championship

Career statistics

Status: end of the 2019/20 season

			Regular season						Playoffs
season	team	league	Sp	T	V	Pt	+/-	SM	Sp	T	V	Pt	+/-	SM
2016/17	TPS Turku U20	A-Jun.-SM-liiga	7th	0	4th	4th	-1	0	3	0	1	1	-2	0
2017/18	TPS Turku U20	A-Jun.-SM-liiga	38	25th	30th	55	+13	16	-	-	-	-	-	-
2017/18	TPS Turku	Liiga	6th	0	1	1	-3	0	-	-	-	-	-	-
2018/19	TPS Turku	Liiga	45	22nd	16	38	+1	10	5	4th	1	5	-2	6th
2019/20	New York Rangers	NHL	66	10	13	23	-26	14th	3	0	0	0	-1	0
A-Juniors-SM-liiga total			45	25th	34	59	+12	16	3	0	1	1	-2	0
Liiga overall			51	22nd	17th	39	-2	10	5	4th	1	5	-2	6th
NHL overall			66	10	13	23	-26	14th	3	0	0	0	-1	0

International

Represented Finland at:

year	team	event	Sp	T	V	Pt	+/-	SM
2018	Finland	U18 World Cup	7th	4th	6th	10	+8	2
2019	Finland	U20 World Cup	7th	2	3	5	+2	0
2019	Finland	WM	10	6th	1	7th	+10	0
Juniors overall			14th	6th	9	15th	+10	2
Men overall			10	6th	1	7th	+10	0

( Legend for player statistics: Sp or GP = games played; T or G = goals scored; V or A = assists scored ; Pkt or Pts = scorer points scored ; SM or PIM = penalty minutes received ; +/− = plus / minus balance; PP = overpaid goals scored ; SH = underpaid goals scored ; GW = winning goals scored; ¹ play-downs / relegation )