The Toronto Maple Leafs made several key moves yesterday at the start of free agency.
They locked down their starting goaltender for a few more seasons and reinvented their blueline in search of finding the right personnel for the playoff push. One of those additions was Jani Hakanpää, most recently of the Dallas Stars organization. His contract, a two-year $1.5M AAV deal seemed to be a steal for the franchise, but recent reports show that it may end up being a bit of a headache moving forward.
Hakanpää’s History of Hurt
After the signing of Hakanpää became official, Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun had a report on his health, more specifically the status of his knee:
“But one with a knee so bad that some think — although the Leafs disagree — that he may never play again.
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, Hakanpää 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.”
That is quite the shocker. Now, it’s worth saying that anything Simmons puts out into the news cycle should be taken with a grain of salt, but if true it would call a lot of procedures into question.
Hakanpää has an extensive history of knee issues that date back to 2023. He first suffered injuries in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Before being in and out of the lineup, it was thought he was going to get surgery that offseason, but ended up not having the procedure done. Jump forward to this most recent postseason, where he missed the entire playoff run for the Stars and opted for a procedure last month.
Now that doesn’t scream career-ending by any means, but it’s worth a wonder. The team went through almost the same issue last season with John Klingberg who had injury issues the season prior but still took the risk and ended up on the LTIR train.
Hakanpää could be a solid addition to the franchise, and it would be idiotic to assume that the team signed a player that couldn’t play, but his status for the upcoming season is one to watch as training camp approaches.
