Jani Hakanpaa Addresses When He Expects to Make His Leafs Debut
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Photo credit: Maple Leafs / Youtube
Jani Hakanpaa has been out of the lineup since training camp, but is itching to join the Leafs and could make his debut sooner than later if he has it his way.
When the Maple Leafs and Hakanpaa first agreed to a two-year deal on July 1st, concerns arose about a nagging knee injury that some were worried may prevent him from resuming his career. The Leafs were very cautious with his rehab and felt good enough about his progress to sign him to a 1-year deal ahead of training camp, which carries a $1.47M cap hit.
Hakanpaa began the season on LTIR, but joined the Leafs on their two-game road trip over the weekend indicating he is almost ready to return.
Following practice yesterday, Hakanpaa spoke to reporters and revealed that he was hopeful that he would be making his Leafs debut sooner than later. Asked about his health and where he is at, he didn't hold back on his hopes to suit up in the blue and white in the near future.
"You always have the itch you want to play, but when you're watching from the stands for a lot of the games, it keeps growing and growing. The itch is close to maxing out, I would say, which is a good thing. That's the way you want it to be. It's getting really close here, real close," Hakanpaa said with a smile. "The excitement's been building for a long time now. I hope they're releasing me (from LTIR) sooner than later so it doesn't go overboard."
Asked if it would be difficult to jump right into game action after being off since March of last season, Hakanpaa admitted there would be an adjustment, but that he is as prepared as he can be.
"I'm in all the meetings, I'm on the ice," Hakanpaa said. "If there's something that's unclear to me, I'll ask and talk to the coaches. We've been making sure that I'm on top of things. There's a lot of lot of similarities with stuff that we've done in the past (with other teams). There's going to be an adjustment, but I think I'm in a pretty good place that way."
Later in the day on Wednesday, the Leafs cleared the cap space necessary to activate Hakanpaa by trading Timothy Liljegren to the San Jose Sharks, which means that Hakanpaa could return for one or both of the Leafs' games this weekend. With his impending return, the Leafs will still have to clear a roster spot for him, but could take a couple extra days in doing so to ease Hakanpaa back into full practice and game situations.
| POLL | ||
OCTOBRE 31 | 1775 ANSWERS Jani Hakanpaa Addresses When He Expects to Make His Leafs Debut Who will the Leafs move off their roster to make room for Hakanpaa? | ||
| Timmins | 338 | 19 % |
| Myers | 679 | 38.3 % |
| Robertson | 577 | 32.5 % |
| Other | 181 | 10.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
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