Rangers had Finnish born player Tarmo Reunanen on the roster during KK's first season. Rangers later acquired Mikkola who they thought would help get him untracked.About three years to late but if Vaakanainen can hang around it will be interesting to see if any affect on Kakko finally having a countryman on the team. It would have gone a long ways when Kakko first came into the league.
Reunanenn played 4 games with the Rangers. Mikkola 31 games. They weren’t in New York long enough to do anything.
It's been interesting hearing the takes from the NHL media talking heads regarding the Rangers' handling of the Trouba and Goodrow situations.
Teams over the past 10 years or so have offered no-move/no-trade clauses as an incentive for players to take less money per year. The league and its restrictive cap made this necessary. When the contract, and the player, ages poorly, the team management then turns nasty and tries to threaten their way out of the deal. for many that I've listened to lately, this is not a good look. The Rangers made their bed and now they're whining, threatening, and blaming the players.
We get the usual sound bytes, "This is a business", "This is New York", but the prevailing sentiment is that the way Drury has handled these situations has gutted this team and nobody wants to play here. Time will tell if Drury (with some directives from Dolan in the background) have made the right moves and will have success this season.