Hakanpaa believes he can play for the Leafs this season: report
August is almost halfway through, and the Toronto Maple Leafs have yet to officially sign defenceman Jani Hakanpaa.
The two sides appeared to have worked out a deal on free agency, with several reports stating it was a two-year contract with an average annual value (AAV) of $1.5 million. However, many started growing skeptical when the organization never officially announced the deal.
Not long after reports of the contract, Postmedia’s Steve Simmons said that he was hearing Hakanpaa may not play again due to a lingering knee injury. That report seemed to explain why the signing was never made official, and since then, we haven’t heard much from the Leafs or the player himself on what exactly is going on.
TSN and sdpn’s Chris Johnston did attempt to shine some light on the story two days ago, saying that the 32-year-old defenceman believes he will be able to play this coming season.
“He believes he can play on his knee,” Johnston said. “I don’t know that there’s unanimity in that opinion from those that are looking at his medical file. There’s just concerns that, essentially, he’s got bone on bone. It’s not a situation that can be terribly comfortable.”
At the very least, it has become quite clear that Hakanpaa is less than 100 percent. That certainly isn’t an ideal situation for the Leafs, who signed him with the intention of having him be an everyday contributor on both their third pairing and penalty kill.
Should he be signed before training camp, he will join a blue line that already features Morgan Rielly, Chris Tanev, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Jake McCabe, Timothy Liljegren, and Simon Benoit.
In 64 games with the Dallas Stars this past season, Hakanpaa scored two goals and 12 points while averaging 18:39 minutes of ice time.
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