Who Is Jani Hakanpaa and Will He Actually Help the Toronto Maple Leafs?

The Toronto Maple Leafs famously signed Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson when free-agency opened this year.

One signing that went somewhat under the radar was the Toronto Maple Leafs signing of defenseman Jani Hakanpaa.

This signing went under the radar because most casual fans have no idea who Jani Hakanpaa is, for good reason, and because he is injured and might not play.

You’d think Brad Treliving would be more cautious about signing former Dallas Stars defensemen with career threatening injuries, but you’d be wrong.

This is a classic Treliving mistake: paying over the league minimum for a replacement player just because he’s big. (stats naturalstattrick.com).

Hakanpaa is 32 and right-handed, but he’s also 6’7″ which, if nothing else, might be the last classic Lil Wayne song, but I digress.

Hakanpaa was drafted in 2010, bounced around Euro leagues and the AHL, and didn’t play a full NHL season until the 2020 shortened season when he was on the Ducks.

He moved to the Stars and became an integral part of their team, appearing in almost every game for three seasons until injury struck and his knees (apparently) suffered from disintegration (also the second best Cure album).

Hakanpaa, if healthy, will replace Simon Benoit, which makes no sense since they both stink but at least Benoit is younger and can walk/skate.

Hakanpaa is huge and could potentially help the Leafs because he’s a scary monster (not a top ten Bowie album, but not bad) but considering Dallas had Miro Hieskanen and Chris Tanev, I doubt Hakanpaa was getting very tough assignments, and his numbers still stink.

Never in his career has his team had possession of the puck more than the opposition. He is going to get hemmed in his own zone and outshot. His teams almost always lose their minutes, and only once in his career where they expected to win them, and even then, it was 50.19% so basically he broke even.

The Leafs need to move the puck and play a high-pace game. The last thing they need is a big lumbering monster who can’t get the puck out of his own end.

The worst part about this deal is the contact. Why does it have to be for two years? Why is the Cap Hit over the league minimum? This is a player who loses his minutes whose career hangs in the balance because of injury.

Who were the Leafs bidding against? It’s so frustrating to see the fans constantly complain about the high price of actual impact players, while the team throws money away 500K at a time on dumb deals.

Domi was signed for four years after signing a series of one-year deals. Ryan Reaves was 37 when the Leafs inexplicably gave him three years. David Kampf, same thing. Benoit, same thing.

Brad Treliving make Kyle Dubas look like a master of contract negotiations.

What a dumb, ridiculous, useless unforced error of a signing.

Classic Treliving.