Urho Vaakanainen came to the Rangers as the main return in the Jacob Trouba trade. With little to no expectations, Vaakanainen had what was essentially a stress free debut and first season with the Rangers. The 2017 1st round pick didn’t look that bad on a terrible defense, putting up 2-13-15 in 46 games in mostly third pairing minutes with rotating defense partners. Given the low expectations, anything that was perceived as better than Trouba was a win, and it’s safe to call this a win for Urho Vaakanainen.
Paired mostly with Braden Schneider (523 TOI), the duo was actually much better together than they were apart, but that may be due simply to small sample sizes. Vaakanainen didn’t play more than 33 minutes with any other defenseman (Will Borgen), so it’s tough to put value in his numbers away from Schneider. The duo didn’t have great possession stats together, but no one on the Rangers blue line outside of Adam Fox had good possession numbers.
Urho Vaakanainen doesn’t have much of a ceiling, which is fine. So it’s worth diving into how he will be able to hold down a spot for next season. Assuming a big shift in how the Rangers play defensively, then Vaakanainen may actually have a legitimate role with Mike Sullivan. He’s low even, defense first, and has a decent enough skill set with denying zone entries.
What Urho Vaakanainen brings to the Rangers is some stability in their defensive depth. He won’t add much offense, but he can defend zone entries well enough that the right partner can bring out better overall numbers. It’s a little similar to how Carson Soucy had a solid complementary skill set to Adam Fox. It’s a bit of a stretch, but at least Vaakanainen can skate far better than Soucy.
There’s not much else to evaluate here. Vaakanainen is what he is, and it will be interesting to see how the Rangers use him with his new contract.
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