VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Strangely enough, of all the cities in all the world, it is in this beautiful Canadian meeting place of the snow-capped mountains and the tributary bays of the mighty Pacific Ocean where young Finnish winger Kaapo Kakko began his journey with the Rangers.

This is the city where he was drafted with the No. 2- overall pick in June, and where, a day short of exactly a year ago, he scored the game-winning goal for Team Finland to beat the Americans in the final of the World Junior Championship.

A lot has happened since, Kakko having now played 36 games in the NHL, going through ups and downs like any 18-year-old would. But so much of it started in Vancouver, where Kakko returned with his Rangers to finish up this four-game road trip against the Canucks on Saturday night.

“It was a great moment in my life,” Kakko said of the draft, his English having improved exponentially since that day. “After that, I know my new team. Yeah, it was a great moment for me.”

The great moments on the ice have maybe not been as prevalent as some might have guessed with the hype surrounding the 6-foot-3, 200-pound Kakko, who was battling Jack Hughes for the rights to be the No. 1 pick going to the Devils. But the Rangers are the youngest team in the league, and the collective inconsistency is what has defined the first half of this season — which completes with Game No. 41 against the Canucks.

The Blueshirts took the first two games coming out of the Christmas break, but lost in Edmonton and Calgary with two desultory defensive efforts. Kakko did manage to break a personal 19-game goalless streak with a seeing-eye shot during the 4-3 loss to the Flames on Thursday night, his seventh goal and 16th point of the season. But he was also benched for all but one shift over the final 7:52 of regulation, his team down by a goal, after he took a bad holding penalty.

Asked if he thought this is just about where Kakko would be halfway through his rookie year, coach David Quinn had an unequivocal answer.

“Yes, and I know a lot of people didn’t,” Quinn said before giving the team off on Friday. “It gets a little crazy, the expectations for these guys when they get drafted. I think everybody has to take a step back and realize that the Connor McDavids, the Sidney Crosbys, those guys are outliers; guys that can step in this league and make an immediate impact.”

Clearly, Kakko has a huge amount of talent, and it was starting to produce results about a month into the season when he scored five goals in eight games. But he then got the flu and missed both games in a two-game Florida trip, and has struggled to regain his confidence since. So it goes in the long grind of the NHL season.

“In Finland we had 60 games and I played 45,” Kakko said. “But I like to play hockey, so it’s good for me.”

Learning how to be an impact player even when not stuffing the stat sheet, and learning how to mentally deal with offensive production that is less than what he was accustomed to in Finland, is something that Kakko already has gotten better at.

“He’s frustrated, he puts a lot of pressure on himself, he has high expectations for himself,” Quinn said. “I think sometimes that hurts him a little bit, because he gets a little bit down on himself. Nobody feels sorry for you in this league when things aren’t going the way you want them to. You have to have the ability to push it aside and have your next best shift.”

Quinn added that “there has been a visible change in him when he comes to the bench and things don’t go his way. He’s not sulking, putting his head down, hanging his shoulders.”

But when Kakko is producing, the momentum of confidence is as clear as — well, as clear as the rising sun over Vancouver Bay.

“These guys that come in at 18 are going to go through some growing pains,” Quinn said. “But he’s going to be a hell of a player for us.”

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