Ex-Penguins Update: Kappy Rides Again

I’ve been following the Penguins in earnest since the early 1970s. (Yes, I’m that old.)

In all that time, I don’t think I’ve ever been more perplexed by a player than former Pen Kasperi Kapanen.

On the surface, he possesses all the tools. Kapanen skates like the wind, possesses a quick release and rapier-like shot and is capable of making crisp, tape-to-tape passes. The husky 6’1” 194-pounder can play a physical game, too, as this 2020 fight with Jared McCann will attest.

Drafted 22^nd overall by then-GM Jim Rutherford in 2014, Kapanen was dealt to Toronto as part of the Phil Kessel blockbuster, then reacquired from the Leafs in 2020, presumably as Kessel’s replacement.

For a season, it appeared Kappy might be up to the task. During the Covid-shortened ’20-21 campaign he tallied 11 goals and 30 points in 40 games (a 60-point pace) while displaying decent chemistry with Evgeni Malkin.

Needless to say, then black-and-gold coach Mike Sullivan was high on him.

“I’ve told him (Kapanen) I think he has the potential to be an elite player in this league,” Sullivan shared in an interview.

I thought so, too.

In particular, I remember focusing on the speedy winger during the ’21-22 preseason and being so impressed. Not only was he creating offense for himself, he was lifting the play of his linemates as well. The mark of a special player.

To my surprise, a player who appeared on the verge instead staggered out of the starting blocks on a nine-game goalless drought. Kappy momentarily broke out with a hat trick on November 6, then turned ice cold again with just two goals over his next 15 games.

That emerging player who was so noticeable during the preseason?

Vanished without a trace.

On the rare occasions when Kapanen had the puck on his stick blade, he’d invariably curl away from the net rather than attack it. It’s as if he forgot how to play the game.

The mark of a player who’d lost his confidence, as he later admitted.

Things didn’t improve in ’22-23. Mysteriously signed to a two-year extension by Ron Hextall at his existing rate, Kappy seemed to spend most of his time skating aimlessly in the neutral zone with little purpose or drive.

With the situation worsening, Hextall placed the erstwhile flying Finn on waivers. Perhaps jolted awake, Kappy popped eight goals in 23 games for his new team, St. Louis.

However, the ’23-24 season was marked by the same disappointing output (a paltry six goals in 73 games for the Blues) and the same maddening inability to tap into his potential.

I confess to being stunned when the Blues re-upped Kappy last summer on a one-year deal for the bargain rate of $1 million. I thought for sure he’d burned through the last of his nine NHL lives. I was stunned again when the Oilers claimed him on waivers a month into the season.

His output with the Oil (five goals, 13 points, a minus-16) was typically uninspired.

Yet, through it all, his coach Kris Knoblauch remained a supporter. It was Knoblauch who’d lobbied for GM Stan Bowman to put in a claim when Kasperi became available.

Seeking more speed and jam, the Oilers’ skipper inserted the veteran winger into the lineup in Game 4 of the Second-Round series with Vegas.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Kappy’s been north-south, fast and physical, as his 41 hits in nine games attest. I mean, he’s flat-out running over people, making like Mike Lange’s bulldozer in a construction yard.

He’s keeping the game simple, which is allowing his natural, raw talents to bubble to the surface, much as they did back in that preseason of long ago.

Kapanen’s latent offensive skills are resurfacing as well, to the tune of three goals in nine games, including the OT series-winner against Vegas.

Who knows what the future holds for the soon-to-be, 29-year-old. For now, he’s seized the opportunity afforded him with both hands and every other part of his anatomy and is giving it his all.

You can’t help but cheer for him.