Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving has given an update on the reported signing of Jani Hakanpaa.
On July 1, it was reported by several insiders that the Maple Leafs signed Hakanpaa to a two-year deal with $1.5 million per season. However, the deal never became official due to the defenseman reportedly dealing with an injury.
On August 14 as the Maple Leafs named Auston Matthews their captain, Treliving was asked about the Hakanpaa deal, and he gave a bleak update on it.
“Working through that. Today we’re dealing with this, but we’ll get to that hopefully sooner rather than later,” Treliving said.
Hakanpaa has skated in 288 regular season games recording 15 goals and 30 assists for 45 points. Last season with the Dallas Stars, he recorded 2 goals and 10 assists for 12 points in 64 games.
Insider Claimed Hakanpaa Would Never Play Again
Following the reported signing of Hakanpaa, Toronto Sun reporter Steve Simmons reported that the defenseman is dealing with a serious knee injury.
Simmons said his sources told him that Hakanpaa may never play again due to the injury.
“It wasn’t that way with Hakanpaa, who signed with Toronto on Canada Day, as well. A year ago, maybe two years ago, Hakanpaa would have factored rather nicely on the Leafs defense. He’s a giant of a man at 6-foot-7, popular in the room, that great hockey vernacular, and a penalty-killer beyond compare. But one with a knee so bad that some think — although the Leafs disagree — that he may never play again,” Simmons wrote on July 1.
“The Leafs signed him to play but many doubt he will. It’s said to be bone-on-bone with not much knee left. It’s said to be trouble. Two years ago, Hakanpaa was playing 18 minutes for the Stars. He might have played his last NHL game in March. If he plays again, plays at all for the Leafs, it will shock those who were around in recent seasons,” Simmons added.
Hakanpaa had a knee injury, and Nick Kypreos of the Toronto Star reported that the Maple Leafs’ medical staff approved the signing despite Dallas’ medical staff not allowing the team to sign the defensemen.
Hakanpaa Was Expected to Kill Penalities for the Maple Leafs
Following the reported signing of Hakanpaa on July 1, Treliving said he was eager for the signing of the 6-foot-7 defensemen.
Treliving envisioned Hakanpaa being a shutdown defenseman and helping the penalty kill unit.
“With Hakanpaa, again a penalty killer. One of the areas looking back at last season that we wanted to address was our penalty kill. That’s an area that Jani really shines in. … You saw that in Dallas over the years, and specifically this past season,” Treliving 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. Today’s a day that you can add players, but you build your team over the course of the summer. There are certainly some areas that we still want to address and still want to augment,” Treliving added.
However, the deal has still yet to be made official. But, the Maple Leafs did add Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson to bolster their defense in free agency.
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