St. Louis Blues Prospect Jani Hakanpaa Returns to Finland
St. Louis Blues defenseman Jani Hakanpaa, who was at one point considered one of the organization’s top prospects, has decided to return to his home nation of Finland for the 2015-16 season. The 23-year-old blueliner signed a two-year deal on Thursday with Oulun Karpat, the defending champions in Liiga, the premier Finnish league.
Hakanpaa, built much like former Blue and recent Hall of Fame inductee Chris Pronger at 6-foot-5 and 218 pounds, never even came close to reaching a player like Pronger’s level of physicality or offensive productivity. He arrived with a certain level of excitement surrounding him at the end of the 2012-13 season, as he joined the NHL club and participated in postseason practices after playing 14 games with the AHL Peoria Rivermen, adding a goal and an assist over that time.
Hakanpaa’s development seemed to slow during the 2013-14 season, his first full season in North America. While playing with the Blues’ AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves, he struggled to make the adjustment to the American game from the outset, and though he grew more comfortable as the season went on, he finished with just four goals and four assists over 54 games. He did, however, finish with an impressive plus-20 rating.
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The most unfortunate development for Hakanpaa was an injury that sidelined him for the duration of the Blues’ 2014 training camp. There seemed to be some uncertainty surrounding whether the injury really necessitated him missing so much practice time, and during that camp a fellow Finnish defensive prospect, Petteri Lindbohm, made a fantastic impression and moved himself ahead of Hakanpaa on the organizational depth chart.
Lindbohm forced himself into the Blues’ immediate NHL plans by the end of the season, and with prospects Joel Edmundson and Colton Parayko also placing themselves firmly upon the organization’s radar, Hakanpaa’s NHL future looked much more murky. He certainly didn’t help himself with a mediocre 2014-15 AHL season, in which he had one goal, seven assists, and an even plus-minus rating over 64 games.
With the move to sign former first-rounder Jordan Schmaltz and have him in the AHL this season, then the trade earlier this week for defenseman Konrad Abeltshauser, a player very similar to Hakanpaa who’s viewed as slightly more athletic and offensively productive, it was clear that Hakanpaa would have a lot to overcome to make it to the NHL.
Though unlikely, especially for a Finnish-born player like Hakanpaa, it’s always possible that he could use the time overseas to develop and then return to America more ready to contribute at the NHL level. One recent example of this was center Philip McRae, who left the Blues organization to play the 2013-14 season in Finland, but returned for 2014-15 and played with the Wolves.