Reaction: Leafs Officially Sign D Jani Hakanpaa To 1-Year, $1.470M Deal

let's break down the signing what we think the player first and foremost can bring to the roster assuming Health we know there's a lingering knee issue here yeah I mean I think he's like Luke Shen 2.0 he's you know he's massive he's like 66 to20 he's got a little bit of a mean Edge to him he hits a lot plus he is uh a consumate plus player he doesn't get scored all that often compared to what he you know what he provides he's a big time penalty killer likes to block shots and if he ever were to scrap I mean y Haka is not a fighter but I'm just saying I've seen him fight and he throws left hands and completely surprises the hell of of guys plus he's a huge bear out there so I mean I'm just rattling off outrageous pluses so what is that guy gonna cost well I don't know four or five million one point screw all like it's unbelievable and that's like I'm running out of fingers on my hand on the pros and then on the cons he might have a bad knee I believe it is right but he was out for the stars in March of last year in 2024 with all the money and resources in the world I just don't see how a guy's knee could be so bunged up that it's not you know reconstructed and fixed and healed and rehabbed and physio by this point in time so I just think the potential for this to be a massively good signing and beneficial to the back end of of the Leafs is huge and if his knee falls apart on day one of Camp well then welcome to ltir like they've done so many times it's really not a huge risk I don't think in my mind with with the potential upside to be massive yeah I agree the pros outweigh the cons uh I think he's going to be beneficial for the penalty kill too but he checks a lot of boxes like how how much we've done this show for what two years how much have we talked about having that established right-handed shooting defenseman um I like the comparison by the way to Luke Shen like I don't think he can play that up into theine L up but I think in a 56 type look maybe a 45 um a Hawkin pot just makes a lot of sense I like the fact that it's a one-year deal like I think the there there's limited risk with it being a one-year contract as opposed to two we just saw with John kingberg he played what 16 games and off to robita Island you go so like if something doesn't go according to plan or his knee doesn't hold up I think you just WR your wrongs and and move on like it just made too much sense for the leaf not to make this transaction 100% like for people who are like oh this is just John kingberg all over again well I I just I like it on paper him and his the way he plays Craig Brew style the way that back end um you know Ben Wah and and mccab getting you know complimented by this big body all of a sudden we're a rugged back end where that hasn't been the case and I don't know if benois or lilligren if this bumps one of them out um I think a lot of people it's tough we'll see how Camp goes see how preseason goes but I mean there's just more bullets in the chamber now and you know we've been dying for a right-handed defenseman I know like no nothing's perfect it's not like this Golden Goose just gets handed to you there's a chance that his knee's not perfect right there's obviously some cloudiness around there hence the however many days it was from them when it announced that he was being signed to when it actually got put down on paper there was some gray area but you got to think that since March all the doctors in the world could fix this guy's knee this isn't 1960 Bobby or where you tear your MCL and that could be the end of your career so I I I got to assume this kid's healthy and we just rattled off like seven huge positives that could really help this team in this back end out and I mean it wasn't very long ago you look at the back end you're just like well I hope Morgan Riley blocks every shot scores every goal does every breakout turns everything to the outside has a plus four blah blah blah blah and it's like and now Morgan Riley is just like a blip on this back end where hey Riley like you don't have the weight of the world on your shoulders anymore go cook with I I want to say no pressure but it's like you don't have to carry the weight of this team you have all these other pieces surrounding you that I mean nobody knows but it could go really really well and everyone can look and say have you seen the Leaf's back end lately and I I just am excited for that potential at least make sure to check out more of our cont content right here on the Leafs Nation YouTube page we got long form interviews we got Clips we got epic rants by Jay Roso we simply have it all and don't forget you can find out much more at the leafnation tocom thanks so much for watching [Music]