Jani Hakanpää has risen to the top of Dallas Stars

Jani Hakanpää the role has grown recently Miro Heiskasen to be on the sidelines.

Hakanpää moved to Dallas Stars for this season on a three-year contract. His seasonal salary is only $ 1.5 million, or about $ 1.3 million.

In particular, the Finnish defender has recently shown that this agreement is cheap for Stars.

In this article, Iltalehti examines how to play Hakanpää.

Fifth most added value to the team

Hakanpää has played quite a good season so far – especially in the defensive direction.

This is particularly evident in the statistics.

For example, while he’s on the ice, opponents have created an average of 2.16 hits in a 60-minute tie (xGA / 60) according to Evolving Hockey.

Goals (GA / 60) opponents have scored an average of 2.10 hits in even-numbered 60 minutes. The figure is the second lowest of the Stars’ defenders.

In other words, when Hakanpää is on the ice, opponents are not able to create high-quality goals very often. And this is also the role of the 29-year-old defender.

When looking at GAR and WAR statistics (Goals / Wins Above Replacement) that bring added value to a team, Hakanpää ranks sixth internally in these statistics. Esa Lindell is fifth.

Hakanpää has brought more added value to Stars this season than, among other things John Klingberg or Ryan Suter. The GAR statistics have accumulated all the performance of an individual player on ice, which brings added value to his team in terms of wins and goals.

So what exactly is Hakanpää doing on ice?

With their own strengths

Hakanpää is a very determined player and plays through his strengths.

Hakanpää is a big player, and he uses his size on the ice quite well to his advantage. He goes to loose hockey situations aggressively and plays physically close to the wings and corners.

As a protruding player, Hakanpää does not give a moment of peace to an opponent’s reed player, but constantly offers club pressure and thus tends to disturb decision-making and obscure possible passing directions. If the opportunity arises, Hakanpää will push the puck away with his long club.

This is a significant advantage in a small trough and especially in the underpower, where Hakanpää is the number one defender of the Stars.

The hook head is not the smoothest skater in the series, nor the most skilled user of the blade, but so far skating has been enough. However, in rapid changes of direction, he may be left behind, and it is sometimes easy to get around on open ice when there is more space and time.

If the opponent’s discus player has time to get himself almost at full speed on open ice and force Hakanpää to change his front direction, the Finn will be left behind. The use of the hook head blade and thus the turning is not smooth enough.

Hakanpää seeks to avoid these situations by aggressively approaching the blue line, taking away space and time, and taking advantage of his dimension.

The hook head is strong when he is able to force the opponent to turn through the edge. At that time, he will be able to disturb and, if necessary, close the free space with his long racket by tackling or gluing to the side of the opponent.

Hakanpää is a strong rigger. However, he is not looking for tackles, but is tackling at the right time when it is really useful. If taking the tackle to the end does not help in the defensive direction, he will not do so, but will retreat towards his own goal.

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Through the simple

Playing as a disc, Hakanpää is based on simplicity, he knows his own limitations in the tight time window of the NHL.

Hakanpää is not the most skilled puck handler, but his game is very much based on giving an easy first pass and, if necessary, winning the area, i.e. dismantling the puck.

Hakanpää’s disc one-sidedness is reflected in the fact that the Stars do not get through the blue lines very often in a controlled way with the disc. This also shows the structural looseness of the Stars’ reel game, and there is not very often a high-quality feed direction near the defender, for example.

Thus, defenders usually open the game with a half-long or long pass, or a cross-stitch across the midfield, respectively, which increases the risk of misfeeds and reel losses.

Implementer of the game style

Through playing Hakanpää, you can see Stars’ way of playing, because the Finn implements it with a comma.

Stars tend to defend closely, even at the expense of attack. Attacking a team at even weeks is opportunistic and does not seek to control matches on the puck.

Defenders are instructed to win the puck and play it quickly to attack the midfield. If this is not possible, the puck must be played out of the area under even slight pressure. However, if necessary, the defenders must take part in the role of the weightless side in the attacks and catch the opponent’s attacker from the blue line in the attack area in situations of pressure.

These are all evident in Hakanpää’s playing.

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The comparison takes time

Hakanpää’s level of defensive play is comparable to that of Esa Lindell, who earns $ 5.8 million (approximately € 5.2 million) this season.

With a Hakanpää xGA / 60 statistic of 2.16 and a GA / 60 score of 2.10, the corresponding readings for Lindell are 2.26 and 2.12. The difference is not very big for Hakanpää, but only highlights the level of his defensive play.

Comparing Hakanpää’s performance this season, for example, to that of Philadelphia Flyers, which recently signed a five-year, $ 25 million extension contract Rasmus to Ristolait is noted that Hakanpää was terribly more reliable.

While when Hakanpää is on the ice, the opponents have created an average of 2.16 hits for the goal in 60 minutes, the corresponding figure for Ristolainen is 2.93. The opponents have scored goals with Hakanpää on the ice at 2.12, while the same reading for Ristolainen is 2.81.

In other words, when Hakanpää is on the ice, the opponents will not be able to create terribly high-quality goals, but when Ristolainen is in the trough, this is what happens.

Sure, these are two different teams, and the way the teams play affects both times, but Hakanpää has been more reliable in the defensive direction.