VANCOUVER, British Columbia _ The Rangers' much-talked-about rebuild reached a turning point on April 9, the night when the Ping-Pong balls bounced their way and they moved up in the NHL draft lottery from the sixth position to No. 2 overall. With two transformative players available, the Rangers knew they were assured that one would be available when it was their turn to select.
So when the Devils did what everyone expected they would, and took American Jack Hughes with the first pick Friday at Rogers Arena, Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton wasted no time in stepping to the podium and announcing that they were taking Finnish forward Kaapo Kakko, the 18-year-old who starred in his country's top professional league, and who led Finland to the gold medal in both the World Junior Championships in this city in January, and the World Championships in Slovakia last month.
Kakko, a 6-2, 194-pound right wing, was the top-rated European skater in the NHL's Central Scouting list of prospects, and was always tabbed as the second-best player available, behind Hughes, the Orlando, Fla., native who scored 112 points in 50 games for the U.S. National Team Development Program. But Kakko made people take notice when he scored 22 goals in 50 games for TPS, in Finland's Liiga, setting a league record for a draft-eligible player. He then scored the game-winning goal for Finland in the gold medal game at the World Juniors _ against a U.S. team led by Hughes _ and finally led a Finland team that had no NHL players to the world title, scoring a team-high six goals in the tournament.
