This is the 2022-23 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Kaapo Kakko
New York Rangers Right Wing
The 12th-lowest hit rate of 393 forwards at 215 pounds, and the 4th-percentile rate of penalties drawn.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 | NYR | 66 | 10 | 13 | 23 | -26 | 14 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 109 | 9.2 | 14:17 |
| 2020-21 | NYR | 48 | 9 | 8 | 17 | +3 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 81 | 11.1 | 14:21 |
| 2021-22 | NYR | 43 | 7 | 11 | 18 | +9 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 62 | 11.3 | 15:27 |
| 2022-23 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 157 | 26 | 32 | 58 | -14 | 34 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 252 | 10.3 | 14:37 |
This Season So Far
The 2022-23 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
43 games, 7 goals and 11 assists at 15:27 a night, plus-9, ten penalty minutes, 62 shots. Second overall in 2019, three seasons, 157 games, 58 points.
Forty-three games is the fewest of his three seasons and 58 points in 157 is the record so far.
The Finesse Game
1.62 even-strength points per 60 is the 39th percentile and eleven per cent of his points came on the power play, where he takes 1:14 on a unit that rated 5th in the league.
5.60 shots per 60 is the 20th percentile at 11.3 per cent. Sixty-two shots in forty-three games. Sixty per cent of them came from the slot at a 19-foot median — the 81st and 14th percentiles, which is exactly where he should be shooting and there are not enough of them.
1.08 takeaways per 60 is the 14th percentile.
50.0 per cent of the expected goals and 49.9 per cent of the attempts — dead level on a club that finished 25th in chances, out of 53.3 per cent offensive-zone starts, the 229th-highest of 652 skaters.
His ice went 24-15 against an expectation of 22.12-22.10 — seven fewer against than the model asked.
The Physical Game
0.72 hits per 60 is the 12th-lowest of the 393 forwards who played forty games at 6-1 and 215 pounds. That is the most striking number in the file: the eleven forwards who initiated contact less often include Patrick Kane, Johnny Gaudreau, Jack Hughes and Phil Kessel.
0.27 penalties drawn per 60 is the 4th percentile, and ten penalty minutes came out of forty-three games. He is not in the traffic in either direction.
The Intangibles
22.4 mph is the 47th percentile, 2.2 bursts per 60 the 11th, 9.24 miles per 60 the 19th. Ordinary speed, almost no sprinting, well below-average ground covered.
He is 21, was taken second overall, and has 26 goals in 157 games.
A 215-pound winger with a level chance share, good shot locations and the 12th-lowest hit rate in the league is a difficult file to place. The shot chart says a scorer and the volume, the contact and the ice time all say the club has not seen one yet.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2021-22 · 594 minutes
- Expected goals
- 50%
- 56th pct
- Shot attempts
- 49.9%
- 55th pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 24 for, 15 against. Expected: 22.1 and 22.1.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 45 points above where the report does. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason. Why the numbers land there sets out the club he did it on, the minutes he played and the men he played them with.
Both bars are percentiles among the 649 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 51 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Tracked
NHL Edge, 2021-22 · 43 games
- Top speed
- 22.4 mph
- 63rd pct
- Bursts over 20 mph
- 0.56 a game
- Distance
- 2.38 miles a game
- Hardest shot
- 90.3 mph
- 69th pct
fastest he was clocked all season; the league's average best is 22.0
how often he reaches that speed, not how fast he goes
skated, all strengths
one shot; the league's average best is 84.1
A top speed is a season's best, and a man who takes more shifts gets more tries at one; the percentile is the feed's own, against every skater, and says less between a top-pair defenceman and a fourth-line wing than it does between two men in the same job. The counts are shown per game for the same reason.
Usual linemates
2021-22 · 594 minutes at five-on-five
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2021-22
- The club
- NYR took 46.7% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 50.0% — 3.3 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Second line, 594 minutes at five-on-five — 24th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mika Zibanejad | 51.1% | 49.0% | 49.6% |
| Jacob Trouba | 43.4% | 56.0% | 48.6% |
| Chris Kreider | 53.1% | 47.5% | 51.8% |
51.1% together, 49.0% for him apart and 49.6% for Zibanejad apart. Splitting them up moved neither man. Whatever is driving the share, it is not this pairing.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
81 unblocked shots in 2021-22, 8 of them goals. His median goal came from 12 feet. 52% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 16% from beyond forty.