{"id":14609,"date":"2025-07-22T23:46:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T23:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/14609\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T23:46:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T23:46:07","slug":"seattle-kraken-agree-to-terms-with-forward-kaapo-kakko-on-a-three-year-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/14609\/","title":{"rendered":"Seattle Kraken Agree to Terms with Forward Kaapo Kakko on a Three-Year Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SEATTLE (July 22, 2025) \u2014 Today, Seattle Kraken General Manager Jason Botterill announced that the club has agreed to terms with forward Kaapo Kakko on a three-year contract ($4.525M AAV) through the 2027-28 season.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Getting a contract done with Kaapo was a top priority this summer,&#8221; said Botterill. &#8220;We knew quickly he&#8217;d be a big part of our team moving forward. He&#8217;s got size, skill and tremendous playmaking ability, and isn&#8217;t afraid of going to the net. He fit in immediately with our group, and we&#8217;re thrilled to have him under contract.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Kakko, 24, split the 2024-25 season between the New York Rangers and Kraken, recording a career-high 44 points (14g\/30a) in 79 regular-season games. Kaapo also set personal bests in assists (30) and power-play goals (4) while posting the second-most goals (14), power-play points (8), game-winning goals (2 -tied) and shots on goal (117) in his career.<\/p>\n<p>Acquired by Seattle on Dec. 18, 2024 for defenseman Will Borgen, a 2025 third-round pick and a 2025 sixth-round pick, Kakko registered 10 goals and 30 points (10g\/20a) in 49 games with the Kraken. He tied his career high for points in a game with three assists in Seattle\u2019s 4-2 victory over LA on Jan. 18. Kakko also had a five-game point streak (3g\/5a) from Jan. 11-18, tying his career high, accomplished four times.<\/p>\n<p>From the date he was acquired through the end of the regular season, Kakko shared second in points, third in assists (20) and power-play goals (3), and sixth in goals. He also co-led the Kraken in even-strength points (24) and shared sixth in power-play points (6).<\/p>\n<p>The 6-foot-1, 215 pound forward has amassed 161 points (71g\/90a) in 379 career NHL regular-season games with the Kraken and Rangers. Among players selected in the 2019 NHL Draft, he ranks first in games played, fifth in goals (71) and game winners (11; tied), sixth in even-strength points (131), seventh in points and eighth in assists (90).<\/p>\n<p>A native of Turku, Finland, Kakko is the youngest player in hockey history to gold medals at all three major IIHF world championship tournaments: World U18 Championship (2018), World Junior Championship (2019), and the World Championship (2019). He also appeared in the 2023 IIHF World Championship and 2025 4 Nations Face-Off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE (July 22, 2025) \u2014 Today, Seattle Kraken General Manager Jason Botterill announced that the club has agreed&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-14609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}