A few recent losses highlighted the Kraken’s need for offensive help, and that’s exactly what the team acquired on Wednesday in a trade for former New York Rangers No. 2 draft pick Kaapo Kakko.

In exchange for the one-time 40-point man, the Kraken sent right-handed defenseman Will Borgen and third- and sixth-round draft picks to the Rangers in 2025. The 23-year-old Kakko is making $2.4 million this season and has one year of restricted free agency remaining, but had fallen out of favor with the Rangers after failing to live up to expectations due to his high draft pick in 2019.

Kakko, a 6-foot-2, 220-pound right winger who shoots left, has scored four goals and provided 10 assists in 30 games this season. He reached his career high two years ago when he scored 18 goals and added 22 assists, for a career-high 40 points in 82 games.

“We’ve been testing on different things, and with (Jordan Eberle) out, we’re short on the right side,” Kraken general manager Ron Francis said. “This guy gives us someone who can play right wing. He’s a big boy and he’s got some skills. That’s why we thought it was the right step.”

Aside from being able to fight for pucks in the corners and along the boards, the Kraken are hoping Kakko can give them more of a net presence that they have lacked at times.

Francis opted for the deal ahead of the upcoming holiday roster freeze — designed to prevent players from being traded or sent to the minors over the holidays — which begins at midnight Thursday and runs through midnight Dec. 27. He could have waited until the March trade deadline to try to move Borgen, but that likely would have resulted in only receiving draft picks in return.

“At this point I’m trying to find an organization that will help the team,” Francis said.

The Rangers gave Kakko a healthy lead on Sunday against St. Louis, the first time he sat out the regular season. He had already been omitted twice in the playoffs, and his recent stint on the bench – amid a Rangers free fall that has seen them lose 11 times in their last 14 games – sparked speculation that a move was imminent somewhere.

Many suitors, including the Minnesota Wild, Pittsburgh Penguins and Dallas Stars, were said to be targeting Kakko, but it was the Kraken that showed up with him. He primarily plays right wing while shooting left-handed, completing a trade with original Kraken expansion draft defenseman Borgen, 27, an impending unrestricted free agent worth $2.7 million this season earned.

After missing much of his first season following the expansion draft, Borgen emerged as a reliable third-team defenseman when selected by the Buffalo Sabers as the Kraken advanced to the second round of the playoffs in 2022-23. He was promoted to the team’s second team last season alongside Jamie Oleksiak, but returned to the team following the signing of free agent Brandon Montour last summer and the extension of Adam Larsson – both right-handed defensemen like Borgen third team back.

“To be fair, he’s in the option year of his contract,” Francis said. “And after we signed Montour and extended Larson, it became increasingly difficult to find him for ice time.”

To date, Borgen has played in 216 consecutive regular season games, marking the 17th-longest active Iron Man streak in the NHL and the sixth-longest such streak by a defenseman. Borgen also appeared in all 14 games of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs with the Kraken, scoring one goal and two assists.

His 535 hits ranked second all-time among Kraken players.

But with the solid play of reserve Josh Mahura and right guard Ville Ottavainen, an up-and-coming prospect looking good at AHL Coachella Valley, it seemed unlikely that the Kraken would retain Borgen’s services past the upcoming March trade deadline. The Kraken also have Cale Fleury and Gustav Oloffson as AHL right-handed d-man options.

So Borgen was transferred even earlier.

With the acquisition of Kakko, the Kraken now have a player who will take part in the upcoming Four Nations Face-Off tournament from February 12-20 in Montreal and Boston, where his Finnish team will face the USA, Canada and Sweden becomes. Kakko has already made history representing Finland, becoming the youngest player to ever win gold at all three IIHF World Championship tournaments.

He helped Finland win gold at the 2018 U18 and U20 World Championships and then did the same at the 2019 Ice Hockey World Championships at the age of 17.

That performance led to him being selected No. 2 by the Rangers at the 2019 NHL Draft in Vancouver, taking up a spot after New Jersey secured Jack Hughes. But while Hughes has become a scoring star with the Devils, the Rangers were still waiting for the promise they saw in Kakko to be fulfilled.

Now it’s the Kraken who will be hoping their promise comes true in a team that has struggled to score at times.

Francis suggested that it might be good for the young player to move Kakko out of New York while Hughes plays just across the river in New Jersey.

“It’s pretty close,” he said. “So if you get him out of here, away from there, we have a chance to work with him. That’s what we hope for.”