Confirmed with Link: Leafs sign defenceman Jani Hakanpää (1 year, $1.47M) (official)

[Dog]

When you look at his payrate and his play last year, why would any Gm want him when cheaper options are available?

Maybe they see him as player who might need environment like what happened with Sandin. Also, be a team who might want to trade a contract out as well.

 

[Dale Gribble]

At least it's only a 1 year deal. I'll take that over 6 years...

 

[darrylsittler27]

Maybe they see him as player who might need environment like what happened with Sandin. Also, be a team who might want to trade a contract out as well.

I think we are stuck with him unless he is a throw in on a bigger deal.

 

[Dog]

I think we are stuck with him unless he is a throw in on a bigger deal.

That's how I see it as well probably have to be more for team to be interested.

 

[rumman]

Sometimes any plug will do.
View attachment 906572

Stop wasting water Ulf……..

Yes, albeit a potentially injury prone defense core.

I’ll be amazed if there isn’t significant time for some on the IR this season…….

 

[rumman]

You think Lily’s value is that low, damn?

If Leaf Nation knows his warts so does the rest of the league, packaged with another asset he might bring a veteran D man back, I heard a rumour about the Ducks sending a retained Fowler our way for Lilly plus, not sure about that, but perhaps that type of deal where the ofher team gets a younger D man that better fits their rebuild timeline for a guy who’s better but older?

What is funny, is someone posted yesterday:
Sorry to break this to you, I don't think we have 6 nhl defensemen now.
Rielly, McCabe, OEL, Tanev, Lilly, the rest are plugs.

I think everyone is just expressing their opinion, and as we can see extreme takes are common.

Lilly might be a NHL defenceman, but I wuestion if he’s a good NHL defenceman……

 

[Dog]

If Leaf Nation knows his warts so does the rest of the league, packaged with another asset he might bring a veteran D man back, I heard a rumour about the Ducks sending a retained Fowler our way for Lilly plus, not sure about that, but perhaps that type of deal where the ofher team gets a younger D man that better fits their rebuild timeline for a guy who’s better but older?


Lilly might be a NHL defenceman, but I wuestion if he’s a good NHL defenceman……

If we could trade Liljegren + Jarnkrok+ for Fowler. I would do it! Maybe some retention on Fowler contract.

 

[RoadWarrior]

Signing a guy with a cooked knee to a 1 year contract and letting Liljergen go as a result would be a horrendous move. I'm hoping that doesn't happen and they keep the defensive core as is outside of moving Timmins

Rielly - Tanev
McCabe - Liljergen
OEL - Hakanpaa

Agreed. There’s no guarantee that Hakanpaa can even play a regular shift in the league and people are wanting to trade Liljegren for a bag of pucks. Even if Hakanpaa can actually skate again the idea that he replaces a mobile D man who can work the PP is ridiculous. They’re apples and oranges. Hakanpaa does provide some PK help on a third pairing.

 

[conFABulator]

I must have been unclear I DONT want to get rid of Rielly, but do want to add someone better. He is paid big bucks to figure it out. To start with, stop signing and overpaying mediocre players like OEL and Kampf
Goaltending is now a crap shoot. Neither of them has played starter for a season, maybe it will work, maybe it won’t. That is a gamble


I hope so!!!!

Thanks for clarifying, I did read it as you wanting to get rid of Reilly. I still don't see what dman we were reasonably acquiring this off-season given all the NMCs and our cap position. Brady Skjei might have been the best available and not great. We couldn't have got two or three guys that we did get. Just him...maybe. OEL is good and not that old and not signed for too long. I am good with what we did.

As for Goalie, most teams have a crap shoot. I think we have three or four lottery tickets with Woll and Stolarz having pretty high floors. There are only like five true number one goalies in the NHL. We don't have one of them...yet

 

[Maple Leaf]

So is he really signed? Healthy?

 

[Da Cool Rula]

So is he really signed? Healthy?

Not sure hes fully healthy

 

[Evilhomer]

The Leafs aren't going to lose anyone relevant from the roster. That's not what contending teams do. They won't trade a guy to make room for Hak. Like always, they will find a way to manipulate the cap to keep everyone and make it work.

 

[LeafsFan89]

Last year, our G7 D was:

Morgan Rielly – Ilya Lyubushkin
Simon Benoit – Jake McCabe
Joel Edmundson – Timothy Liljegren
TJ Brodie (scratch)

...it looks like this year we are starting with:

Morgan Rielly – Chris Tanev
OEL – Timothy Liljegren
Jani Hakanpaa – Jake McCabe
Simon Benoit (scratch)

...obviously Benoit and Hakanpaa could swap if not fully healthy.

We are improved and this is over the post-TDL roster and not the one we played most of the year when Brodie and Giordano were among our top six on games played.

Also, lots of people seem to think we made a mess of this signing, it seems to have been played perfectly. We got the guy we wanted at good term and dollars and we did it after we got Robertson locked in.

I would rather Benoit over Hakanpaa tbh. Benoit-Mccabe was amazing last year.

 

[conFABulator]

I would rather Benoit over Hakanpaa tbh. Benoit-Mccabe was amazing last year.

Yeah, it's a tough pairing to break up. I went with three RD and three LD and I think that has value.

The fact that one of Hakanpaa and Benoit might be number seven is a pretty good thing. I think we have the potential for three pairings that could warrant equal ES ice time.

 

[acrobaticgoalie]

If Leaf Nation knows his warts so does the rest of the league, packaged with another asset he might bring a veteran D man back, I heard a rumour about the Ducks sending a retained Fowler our way for Lilly plus, not sure about that, but perhaps that type of deal where the ofher team gets a younger D man that better fits their rebuild timeline for a guy who’s better but older?


Lilly might be a NHL defenceman, but I wuestion if he’s a good NHL defenceman……

Not that +/- is great stat to go by but Lilly has a +15, +24 and +3 in his last 3 seasons and averages around 25-30 pt pace every year. So I don't see how he can be considered a bad NHL d man

 

[Macallan18]

Thanks for clarifying, I did read it as you wanting to get rid of Reilly. I still don't see what dman we were reasonably acquiring this off-season given all the NMCs and our cap position. Brady Skjei might have been the best available and not great. We couldn't have got two or three guys that we did get. Just him...maybe. OEL is good and not that old and not signed for too long. I am good with what we did.

As for Goalie, most teams have a crap shoot. I think we have three or four lottery tickets with Woll and Stolarz having pretty high floors. There are only like five true number one goalies in the NHL. We don't have one of them...yet

Ok who? Provorov? He was available, were we in on him?
Goalie? Hmmm didn’t Boston lose one?

 

[Stephen]

If they can delete Timmins from the cap sheet and insert Hakanpaa, that more or less helps change the profile of the blueline without having to move Liljegren.

 

[Maple Leaf]

If they can delete Timmins from the cap sheet and insert Hakanpaa, that more or less helps change the profile of the blueline without having to move Liljegren.

Lilegren needs a big year to prove himself before a big contract o

 

[mapleleaf979]

Lilegren needs a big year to prove himself before a big contract o

He is already over paid. I thought 3 million was for 2 years, but its 3 million per for a very suspect defenseman. Hopefully Hakanpaa is healthy, the Liljegren contract is not a good one. He has no hockey sense and is another soft dman the Leafs dont need. Berube will like his compete but Liljegren isnt capable of playing a heavy game, Hakanpaa is if healthy.

 

[conFABulator]

Ok who? Provorov? He was available, were we in on him?
Goalie? Hmmm didn’t Boston lose one?

I don't know if you are agreeing with me or not? Provorov was not the move for the Leafs to make and I imagine they were not to in on it.

Ullmark was never coming to Toronto for probably a half dozen reasons.

I think our choice was to sign Skjei and trade for Markstrom, or sign Tanev, OEL, Hakanpaa, and Stolarz, probably keeping Domi could be at risk cap-wise.

There were not a lot of missed opportunities for us this off-season.

 

[Puckstuff]

I don't know if you are agreeing with me or not? Provorov was not the move for the Leafs to make and I imagine they were not to in on it.

Ullmark was never coming to Toronto for probably a half dozen reasons.

I think our choice was to sign Skjei and trade for Markstrom, or sign Tanev, OEL, Hakanpaa, and Stolarz, probably keeping Domi could be at risk cap-wise.

There were not a lot of missed opportunities for us this off-season.

They also made a big offer for Montour but he didn’t want to sign here

 

[Shooter2x]

Still hoping we use whatever hype Liljegren has left in a trade for a forward under 30 years old.

 

[crump]

Need that depth, but it’s the same old quandary at the start of the season. Someone is going to get moved for cap reasons. Be it waived, traded or LTIR.

I’ve also heard it mentioned that this is the first year in a while where we don’t have a player already injured or rehabbing from last year on LTIR. I’m not a capologist but they can finally accrue cap space for the first time in a while.

“Cap space “accrues” over time. A team with $500K cap room to start the year can add a player with a $1,000,000 Cap Hit halfway through season (Day 93). Due to the way the cap is calculated, a player worth $1M annually will only count for $500,000 in actual cap charge through the remainder of the year.”

 

[Its not your fault]

Liljegren has to be gone IMO

Or you double down get rid of Conner Timmins. Unless you're going to lose him to waivers.

 

[NJG]

Lilegren needs a big year to prove himself before a big contract o

Lilegren needs a big trade this year.