Jani Hakanpaa’s reported two-year contract hasn’t been confirmed by the Toronto Maple Leafs, but it just appears to be a matter of time before the towering defender officially inks a new deal with the club. Hakanpaa hasn’t played since March due to a knee injury and Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun reported that there was some doubt surrounding his ability to return to the NHL.
Nick Kypreos of the Toronto Star did some further research and it appears that the Maple Leafs’ medical team didn’t share the same concerns about Hakanpaa’s prognosis as the Stars did.
“A Dallas source confirmed to me they would have liked to re-sign Hakanpää but feared he has a “degenerative knee” that would be tough to manage next season,” Kypreos wrote. “The Leafs certainly do not feel the same way as their medical team had an extensive look prior to the signing and were very comfortable giving Shanahan and Treliving the green light to move forward.”
Hakanpaa possessed middling possession numbers on a Stars team that went to the Western Conference Finals, while he was ruled out of the lineup. The 6-foot-7 veteran recorded two goals and 12 points in 64 regular season contests last season.
“A penalty killer, one of the areas looking back at last season we wanted to address was our penalty kill and that’s an area Jani really shines in his ability to kill penalties,” Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving said of Hakanpaa on Monday. “You saw that in Dallas over the years and specifically this past season,” he said. “We’ve got a group of defensemen. I’d rather have too many than not enough. And we’ll try to sort this out in the coming days.”
