It seems like an April Fool’s joke to say that Jani Hakanpaa participated in Toronto Maple Leafs practice on April 1st. The bizarre free agent signing of a giant defenceman who looked to be out with a career ending injury resulted in an incredibly delayed signing followed by the defenceman playing in just two games for the Leafs to date.

Hakanpaa’s improving status coincides with a growing sentiment that Simon Benoit is not going to cut it on the blueline come playoff time. Of course, suggesting that a defenceman who has played in just two games and has familiarity with the Leafs’ personnel or systems on ice requires a bit of brake pumping if you were indeed feeling optimistic about Hakanpaa as well, but there is no questioning the allure of the mystery box in this scenario and having Hakanpaa as an option for the playoffs doesn’t hurt the Leafs, so the question becomes, how do the Leafs integrate him in the remaining two and a half weeks of regular season?

The first step would be a conditioning stint with the Marlies. Ideally the shorter the better given that the Maple Leafs can’t waste any time in getting Hakanpaa into their lineup. If nothing else, it allows them to see where he’s at when it comes to keeping up to play and whether this is an option for the Leafs to consider or whether they will just be riding out the remaining days of his contract. There aren’t any hurdles with this part of the rehabilitation process.

The obvious hurdle in getting both Hakanpaa and Max Pacioretty back into the lineup is the salary cap and finding $2.3M. The Leafs are healthy beyond those two players at the moment and the only waivers exempt player on the roster is Matthew Knies, who the Leafs aren’t scratching and demoting. If the Leafs were to toy with the idea of waiving someone to get Hakanpaa into the lineup, they would be taking a gamble that there isn’t a team out there wanting to hurt their depth by claiming the waived player, not to mention that it would likely require two players being demoted to fit Hakanpaa into the lineup. In theory that is Philippe Myers along with either Calle Jarnkrok or Simon Benoit. None of this is likely to happen.

It seems the only real path to playing for the Leafs would come with a long term injury somewhere else in the Leafs lineup and this is not something anyone is hoping for and that leaves the reality of Hakanpaa’s return to be driven by practicing as much with the Leafs right now and timing his Marlies conditioning stint to get him in as many AHL games as possible at the end of the season.

Having Hakanpaa practice with the Leafs now at least gets him back to working with the team and potentially building some familiarity with the defencemen he needs to work with: Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Benoit, etc. His role and positioning can be established and given that he is hardwired to be a safe, stay-at-home option that doesn’t let the play get behind him, the Leafs might not need to worry about the understanding of the role, just finding out if he can fit with a potential partner.

Any time that Hakanpaa spends with the Marlies should probably be spent working with the potential playoff black aces or likely first callups like Marshall Rifai and Dakota Mermis. It’s a chance to establish some expectations for the closest thing to NHL bottom pairing and throw them against the best competition available in the AHL as much as possible with the hope that it can at least mirror the NHL bottom six competition that Hakanpaa would likely be exposed to as a third pairing defenceman.

Hakanpaa’s return to the NHL following that probably makes him a long shot for being used in the playoffs by the Leafs aside from being a last resort but the one option that at least deserves some passing consideration is the possibility of using 11 forwards and 7 defencemen. Dropping a limited usage forward and relying on situational and sheltered play has some merit, as well, although the Leafs haven’t reached game 82 and signs of fatigue are already showing, but that same fatigue is showing in the defence and carrying an extra defenceman, especially one that can pull one of the top four blueliners off the penalty kill starts showing some merit and could be a practical use of resources.

For any of this to happen Craig Berube would have to see something he likes from Hakanpaa in the limited exposure he’ll get in the coming days and there will need to be a loss of faith in his bottom pairing options of Ekman-Larssson, Benoit, and Myers, and given that both Myers and Benoit have been averaging over 16 minutes a night this season, and OEL has had over 20 minutes of ice time in 9 of the 12 games since the trade deadline, there simply isn’t room for Hakanpaa until desperation sets in.