The Toronto Maple Leafs bolstered their back end in the offseason with the signings of Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson to multi-year deals, but one signing was up in the air months after it was reported.

That player, of course, was Jani Hakanpaa. The ‘reported’ in this headline is key because he didn’t put pen to paper with the Maple Leafs until September, which made everybody’s offseason lineup predictions more difficult than they had to be. He had last played an NHL game for the Dallas Stars in March 2024 before a knee injury knocked him out of commission for the rest of the season. His knee issue was the reason the signing was so delayed, but in fairness, the potential reward that came with a healthy version of him was too much to pass up for general manager Brad Treliving, especially at the reported price.

Standing at 6-foot-7 and 225 pounds, Hakanpaa essentially embodies everything Treliving likes in a defenceman. Big, strong, physical, and hard to play against. He ate up a ton of penalty-kill minutes for every team he’s played for, and that penalty-killing ability was another reason they signed him. The Leafs’ penalty kill was bad, to say the least, last season. They finished the season ranked 23rd in the NHL, one spot ahead of the Montreal Canadiens, who finished 15 points out of a playoff spot. Not ideal!

Here’s a snippet from our original report on the signing from Arun Srinivasan.

In a perfect world, Hakanpaa would be on the Maple Leafs’ third pair right now, but unfortunately, the injury issues have spilled into the 2024-25 season. As Arun alluded to, the towering Finn underwent a procedure in March that kept him out of action until November. He played two games for the Maple Leafs in November but the knee issue sidelined him again, requiring further treatment. There’s still optimism that he’ll play for the Maple Leafs in the new year, and if he can stay healthy, that’s one less need for Treliving to pursue at the deadline. Unless, of course, they’re comfortable with running a third pair of Simon Benoit and Conor Timmins in the playoffs.

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