The Maple Leafs are expected to land UFA defenseman Jani Hakanpää, TSN’s Darren Dreger reports. It’s a two-year deal, Dreger adds. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports it’s a $1.5MM cap hit.
Hakanpää is the final item in a Toronto defense shopping list today that also includes Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Now 32, the defensively stout Finn heads to his fourth NHL team since arriving from Europe in 2019.
Last year was a tough ending for Hakanpää. His season ended around the trade deadline due to injury, and he wasn’t able to suit up in postseason action for the Stars as they advanced to the Western Conference Final. Much like he has the past few years in Dallas, he logged fringe top-four minutes in the regular season, also contributing 12 points and a +10 rating in 64 games. He was among the Stars’ most frequent hitters, using his 6’6″, 225-lb frame to lay the body 196 times.
Used almost exclusively in defensive situations, Hakanpää will be a steady and perhaps more competent replacement for depth players like Joel Edmundson and Ilya Lyubushkin who signed elsewhere for much more money today. In that sense, it’s an extremely shrewd pickup by GM Brad Treliving for a player who could prove to be the right kind of third-pairing partner for the more offensively-inclined Ekman-Larsson.
With their signings today, the Leafs now have a chance to ice a reliable puck-mover on each pairing in Ekman-Larsson, Timothy Liljegren and Morgan Rielly, paired each with Hakanpää, Jake McCabe and Tanev on their flanks. That’s a much more balanced composition than the D-core that largely failed to hold its weight in their first-round loss to the Bruins, plagued by a lack of competent puck-moving defenders.
After today’s moves, the Leafs are fully capped out with a 23-man roster.
So… Does this mean Brodie isn’t coming back? XD
Yes, Brodie is gone. They are not offering him a contract. Unfortunately this season he has lost a step and his play went way down.
Stars have some work to do on that back end.
Have fun running the PP in SJ, Timmins
not sure this means Timmins is gone. Timmins is basically a 6/7 guy. if anything I think it means TLs days are numbered. he has cost certainty now for a future team and can’t imagine they envision him in the top 4 or want a $3m 5/6
a replacement for TL once he’s traded
Nice pickup
Leafs finally found out what a defenseman is and signed every one they could think of. At least one of them just won the Cup so he can tell some fun stories to the rest of the group about what its like not to choke in the first round all the time.