2025 Rangers Season Previews: Urho Vaakanainen

This article is part of an ongoing series of Rangers Season Previews, taking a close look at what we can, and should, expect from each member of the 2025-26 New York Rangers. To read other articles in this series, go here.

A product of one of the biggest trades that kicked off this New York Rangers retool, Urho Vaakanainen spent just over half a season with the Rangers last year, collecting 15 points in the process. At his best, Vaakanainen was trialed on the top pair with Adam Fox, but was more effectively utilized in a bottom-pair role. A former 18th overall draft pick, Vaakanainen is on his third NHL team in just as many years and is still looking to solidify himself as a full-time, every day NHLer. Will this season be a step forward for him or will he continue to be a fringe sixth or seventh defenseman in the NHL?

Previous Performance

In 46 games played with the Rangers last season, Vaakanainen found the back of the net twice and collected 13 assists for 15 total points. In his five games with the Anaheim Ducks prior to the trade, he had just one assist to show for it, but did deal with injury during that time. Drafted 18th overall in 2017, Vaakanainen was never expected to be a huge point producer or carry the workload on an NHL team’s back end. However, he was coveted as a defensive stalwart that could move the puck, block shots and potentially develop into a real shutdown type of defenseman. In theory, he is still making strides towards that, but injuries and a chunk of his key developing years being impacted by COVID certainly slowed things down. 

The hope is, now that he has settled into a short term commitment with the Rangers, he can really take those next strides and become a stay-at-home, defensive defenseman on the bottom pairing that can be counted on to play a shutdown game, block shots, maybe kill penalties, and help keep the puck out of the Rangers end of the ice. The way this roster is shaking out, the Rangers should have one defensive minded player on each pairing with a more offensive-minded partner at their opposite side. With Vladislav Gavrikov and Adam Fox, Gavrikov can focus on defending more allowing Fox to be his elite self. With Braden Schneider and Will Borgen, Schneider can hopefully explore more of his overall game with Borgen being the stay-at-home defenseman.

The third pair is a little more tricky. 

The problem there is that Carson Soucy plays a similar type of defensive style, whereas Scott Morrow is more of an offensive defenseman option. In that case Vaakanainen is either going to have to beat out Soucy for that defensive role on the third pairing entirely or will have to hope Morrow isn’t fully NHL ready and find a way to compliment Soucy’s game, likely playing on his off hand. The third scenario here is that Vaakanainen settles in as the team’s seventh defenseman, slotting in for injuries or other potential relief situations. Regardless, this is going to be a big year for Vaakanainen and the result of that needs to be in his hands. 

Expectations

Regardless of what anyone thought of Vaakanainen’s game last season, it was enough to gain the Chris Drury seal of approval as he locked him up to a two-year contract extension with an AAV of $1.5 million. Whether that was more of a well-earned raise for the player or Drury getting ahead of what became a crazy free agent market, it has the potential to turn into a really good value deal for a player still looking to hit his prime. That being said, this year has the potential to be one of, if not the most important years of Vaakanainen’s career for a number of reasons. 

For starters, Vaakanainen is fresh off a two-year extension that some folks were at least skeptical of, if they didn't dislike altogether. He’s a difficult player to truly judge as so much of his game focuses on the little things. A common adage regarding defensemen is that if you don’t hear about them throughout the game, they’re typically doing their job well. Vaakanainen is exactly that type of player as he’s not often going to find his name on the score sheet or make a huge play that changes the course of a game. But more often than not, he’s going to be in the right spot defensively and help his team keep the puck out of harm’s way. 

Through this extension, Vaakanainen has gained stability for the next two seasons along with a reasonable pay raise. All that’s left for him is to prove that he’s earned his place and take that roster spot with confidence and consistency. That extension by no means secures his place with the Rangers for the next two seasons. If he doesn’t continue to earn his keep, that’s a contract that can be buried with ease in the AHL and given the direction of this team, they’re not going to wait around and hope he turns his game on. If it’s not there, he’ll sit in the press box until they find someone else to take his place 

On top of the contract and approaching his prime, Vaakanainen will likely get the chance to represent his country for the second year in a row, this time on the Olympic stage. With there not being a ton of Finnish defensemen in the NHL, Vaakanainen has a solid chance to, at minimum, make the Olympic roster as an extra defenseman, if not play a bottom pair role with Team Finland. That, along with the opportunity to be an every day part of this Rangers lineup, should be plenty of incentive for him to have a career season. And believe it or not, Vaakanainen is actually coming off his career best season with the Rangers last year. 

Predictions

64 GP—3 G—18 A—21 PTS

I alluded to this earlier in the summer, but unless Matthew Robertson truly turns a ton of heads during training camp, I feel that the Rangers seven defensemen are pretty much set. Urho Vaakanainen will compete with Carson Soucy and Scott Morrow to be a mainstay on that bottom pairing, but realistically injuries are always a factor. I don’t necessarily see him beating Soucy out for a job initially, but if Soucy looks anything like he did last year, Urho will get in games over him for sure. 

Scott Morrow may need more time in the AHL to continue developing. If that’s to start the season then Vaakanainen will surely be an every day part of that bottom pairing for the first 10-15 games. If it’s later in the season, it could be for a longer stretch. Bottom line, I’d say 64 games would be a reasonable guess for how many times Vaakanainen is in the lineup for the Rangers. Among his goals for the season, staying healthy should be the biggest priority as that’s going to be an imperative part of his future in the NHL. 

Beyond that, playing in more games than last season, putting up at least a few more points than he did last season, and making Team Finland for the Olympics should all be atop his list of goals for the coming season. He may be coming off a career high season but he’s far too young to settle for 16-points being his peak, even if offense isn’t the focus of his game.