After months of anticipation, the Toronto Maple Leafs finally put pen to paper on a contract for Jani Hakanpaa.

The contract is a one-year deal with an AAV of $1.47 million, which is slightly less than Hakanppaa was reported to have signed back on July 1st (two years, $1.5 million AAV).

The reason why the contract is slightly less than what was initially reported and what took it so long to become official is likely due to concerns about his health. Hakanpaa was reported to be dealing with a ‘degenerative knee’ which was described as ‘bone-on-bone’.

At the time that reports about his health first emerged, shortly after free agency began, there were worries from the Stars’ medical staff that the injury was severe enough that Hakanpaa’s career could be in jeopardy.

Despite these concerns, the Leafs’ medical staff approved the front office’s pursuit of the towering Finnish defenceman and Hakanpaa was reportedly adamant that he could play. What made the saga so bizarre was the infrequent updates from the Leafs and Hakanpaa’s camp on how things were going, with the only word received from Brad Treliving after first speaking of the player that they ‘were working through it’ on the day Auston Matthews was officially unveiled as captain.

As the weeks passed by without any clarity on this signing being made official, doubts grew that this could get done and the likelihood of the Leafs needing to quickly pivot grew. But those fears were put to rest when TSN’s Darren Dreger reported yesterday that Hakanpaa’s deal would soon finally be completed after Nick Robertson ended his stalemate with the Leafs.

After all of that mystery and confusion, the saga has come to an end and Leafs fans can look forward to seeing the positive impacts Hakanpaa will bring on defence both at even strength and on the penalty kill. Should he remain healthy, the 6-foot-7 and 222-pound blue liner should help solidify the backend and give Craig Berube a quality weapon he can utilize to shutdown the opposition.

Before an injury sidelined him in mid-March, he appeared in 64 games for the Stars where he picked up 12 points (two goals and 10 assists) while racking up 123 blocks and a team-leading 196 hits.