Jani Hakanpaa
Because of the uncertainty of his recovery from his knee injury during the offseason, the signing of Jani Hakanpaa wasn’t made official until just recently by the Maple Leafs.
As a hulking six-foot seven, 222-pound defenseman, it gives the Leafs a huge, big-bodied player in the back end that they haven’t seen in ages. Hakanpaa won’t be stuffing the offensive stats sheet. After all, he has recorded only 15 goals and 45 points in 288 games in his NHL career.
However, as a traditional defensive defenseman, Hakanpaa has the ability to average over 100 blocks, 200 hits and 18 minutes of ice time over a full season. As a result, he ultimately can provide tremendous value at the defensive end of the ice. Not only can he help clear out bodies from the front of the net, he is also strong in his positioning to help keep pucks out of the net as well. (All stats from hockeydb.com and hockey-reference.com).
Why did the Leafs need him when they already have absolute monsters Phillipe Myers and Cade Weber competing for jobs? Both of whom are younger, cheaper and healthier?
Reports currently show that Hakanpaa's recovery from his knee injury is going well and that he could be joining the Leafs for practice hopefully some time later this week.
Even though the Leafs defensive corps appear to be already set with Morgan Rielly, Chris Tanev, Jake McCabe, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Simon Benoit and Timothy Liljegren as their projected starting six, as a proven smart and effective NHL veteran in the past, look for Hakanpaa to impress enough in preseason to challenge for a starting spot in the Leafs lineup.