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 22nd 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.