Is Kasperi Kapanen the Poster Child for the Penguins’ Flawed Development Process?

It’s awfully hard not to notice how well former Penguins forward Kasperi Kapanen is doing in his new digs in St. Louis. Indeed, since being claimed on waivers by the Blues on February 25, the speedy 26-year-old forward’s been reborn.

On Thursday night, he scored the overtime winner against the Rangers on what was described as a “brilliant shot” by the Blues’ color commentator. Yes, you read that right…overtime winner.

In 20 games with the Blues, Kapanen’s tallied eight goals and 13 points. Roughly a 32-goal pace over the course of a full season.

While it would be folly to expect Kappy to keep that up…his shooting percentage is an unsustainable 19.5 percent and he’s tailed off a bit (one goal in his past six games following a red-hot start)…it does point to the fact that maybe he’s got more of an upside than he showed in the ‘Burgh. Especially over the past two seasons.

Then again, nobody ever accused Kapanen of being a talentless bum. Not Pens GM Ron Hextall, who signed him to a two-year $6.4 million extension this past summer. And certainly not his former black-and-gold coach.

“I’ve told him (Kapanen) I think he has the potential to be an elite player in this league,” Mike Sullivan shared in an interview early in the 2021-22 season. “I really believe that. I’ve told him that on a number of occasions, and I’m going to do everything within my power to try to help him get there. And sometimes that means tough love for Kappy…But it’s not because we don’t think highly of him. It’s just the opposite.”

Indeed, the raw skills were and are certainly there. The eye-popping speed, a rapier-like shot and decent enough puckhandling skills, wrapped in a solid 6’1”, 194-pound frame.

However, following a promising first season with the black and gold when he tallied 11 goals and 30 points in 40 games while flashing top-six potential, the former first-round pick curdled.

So what went wrong?

It could be argued that Kapanen was never a good fit for Sullivan’s system. Sully likes his forwards, especially his bottom-sixers, to get in on the forecheck and cycle and grind. Jason Zucker’s a classic example.

While Kappy possesses the speed to be a nuisance to opposing defensemen, he isn’t especially good in traffic. Indeed, his signature move was to pull up short, often curling away from the net. Whether this was due to an inability to read the play or an attempt to create time and space for himself (or a combination of both) is hard to say.

Nor is it a closely guarded secret that Kapanen’s at his best in open ice, where he can use his world-class wheels. Yet Sullivan and his staff rarely seemed to use the Finnish flash in situations where he had the potential to operate in open space, such as the penalty kill, in 3-on-3 overtime or in late-game empty-net situations.

As a rule, Sullivan doesn’t coddle players or dole out opportunities like candy, especially with the kids. They need to earn his trust. It isn’t a stretch to say Kapanen didn’t do enough with the opportunities afforded him to merit an expanded role.

The way Kapanen was deployed, especially this season, didn’t help matters. At his best when skating next to stars like Auston Matthews and Evgeni Malkin, he frequently played on a poorly constructed third line with a badly diminished Jeff Carter and Brock McGinn, a defense-first mucker. It proved to be a disastrous combination.

All things considered, Kappy’s numbers with the Pens…seven goals and 20 points in 43 games…weren’t all that atrocious. However, consistent with his performance last season, there were large swaths of time when he appeared to be all but invisible (Kasperi the Friendly Ghost), leading to an occasional healthy scratch.

In the end Kapanen’s failure to develop with the Pens was a shared responsibility. Something Sullivan readily admitted following the speedy winger’s release.

“Kappy is a really talented player,” Sully said. “To a certain extent it’s on all of us because we didn’t find a way to maximize his potential. He brings a ton of speed. He has the ability to shoot the puck. He has good offensive instincts. Brings a lot of size. There’s so many attributes that Kappy brings that are really attractive. For whatever reason, we couldn’t find a way to get his potential out of him, and that falls on all of us.”

As for other younger players who departed the black-and-gold fold in the past year or so? Zach Aston-Reese and Sam Lafferty (10 and 12 goals respectively) are anchoring the fourth line in Toronto. The latter, in particular, was given a rough ride by Sullivan.

Defensemen Mike Matheson (eight goals and 33 points in 45 games) and John Marino (plus-19) are thriving in their new locales. McGinn and Teddy Blueger are performing about as well as they did here. Radim Zohorna continues to be an AHL-plus player. Anthony Angello’s star was on the wane until he recently heated up with Milwaukee, Nashville’s top farm club.

Stretching the window a bit, Jared McCann blossomed into a 38-goal scorer for the Kraken and heretofore washout Daniel Sprong’s netted 20. Conor Sheary’s established himself as a solid and valued citizen in Washington.

Have the Pens failed to properly develop their young talent?

You be the judge.