After trusting intuition, Jani Hakanpää already loving time with Stars

FRISCO, Texas --When free agency opened this past summer, Jani Hakanpää mulled over his options.

His services were in demand, with several teams expressing interest in the hulking 6-foot-7, 220-pound defenseman. The 29-year-old from Kirkkonummi, Finland was coming off his first full NHL season that began with Anaheim and ended with Carolina. The Hurricanes acquired him at the trade deadline, and Hakanpää responded there with two goals, three points and a plus-4 rating in 15 regular-season games. He also skated in all 11 of the team's playoff games.

But for reasons he can't truly explain, something about the Stars kept bringing him around. The Stars were interested, no doubt, but so were other teams.

So, what exactly was it that made him want to call Dallas home?

"From the start, it was a good gut feeling I had," said Hakanpää, who signed a three-year deal with the Stars in July. "It's hard to explain, but I had a good feeling about it right off the bat. We had a lot of Finns here already, so I got to talk to them and ask around.

"It really came down to the wire, but I went with my gut feeling. I've been liking it so far."

Hakanpää joins a group of Finns that includes Miro Heiskanen, Roope Hintz, Joel Kiviranta and Esa Lindell. Having that familiarity helped. In fact, he and Lindell go way back.

"I knew Esa probably the best," Hakanpää said. "Growing up, we used to play against each other quite a bit. And going back to my St. Louis days, we used to work out together in the summers with the same group of people. I think it was like two or three summers. We have a lot of mutual friends. With Kivi, we played on the national team and ended up winning the whole thing. That's something you never forget."

Hakanpaa is the quintessential late bloomer.
Originally picked by St. Louis in the fourth round (104th overall) of the 2010 NHL Draft, Hakanpaa was never able to crack the Blues' lineup. He spent ample time in the American Hockey League with Peoria and Chicago, and put in the work with Quad City in the ECHL. Eventually, he made his way back to Finland to play with Kärpät in the country's top professional league.
After a few international tournaments with Finland -- including a gold-medal run at the 2019 IIHF World Championship with Kiviranta -- Hakanpaa signed a one-year contract with the Ducks in July 2019. Five games into his NHL career, Hakanpaa
scored his first career NHL goal
that March against -- ironically -- the Blues, which also happened to be Anaheim's last game of the season because of the COVID shutdown.
Hakanpaa earned himself another one-year contract with Anaheim, where he spent the first 42 games of the 2020-21 season before being dealt to the Hurricanes during a heated playoff run. He elevated his play with Carolina and
scored a huge goal
in his second game to give the Canes a 2-1 lead in the third period against the Nashville Predators.
In the process, he became a fan favorite. And after getting a taste of playoff hockey with the Hurricanes, Hakanpaa wanted more of it.
He factored that into his decision to sign with the Stars.
"You want to win," he said. "It's always something that's driven me. It's a good opportunity here to make some deep runs in the playoffs."
Though he's only been around his new teammates for a few weeks, Hakanpaa says he can already feel the chemistry building.
"It's good mix with having that core here for quite a while and having some young guys that I think are going to break out big time here," he said. "Being around the guys, it feels like it's a tight group. That's something you don't really know coming in, but since I got here, I feel like it's a tight group of guys."

The past few months have been a whirlwind for Hakanpaa, who became a father for the first time with the birth of his daughter seven weeks ago. Being a new dad while also figuring out where to live in a new state naturally had its challenges.
"The original plan was for me to fly here first and get everything set up because you never know how it's going to go with Visas, passports and COVID," said Hakanpaa, whose wife gave birth in Finland. "They came here with me. We ended up getting a passport real fast and got all the paperwork just in time for us to fly together. That was perfect. It was nice to have two pairs of hands on the flight here with the baby and especially now as our family gets adjusted to a new area and time zone.
"I don't have to miss the first few months of our first born. It was awesome that it ended up working out for us."
Maybe it was fate that Hakanpaa signed in Dallas because he, too, dabbles in the barbecue game.
"I have a nice smoker back home, so for the past three years I've been doing some barbecuing," he said proudly. "I'm not saying I can compare myself to these guys over here, but I'm dipping my toes. Dallas has some good barbecue. I know that for sure."
As busy as his life has been, Hakanpaa and his family have been taking the time to enjoy their new home.
"It's great," he said of the Metroplex. "We really like it so far. We've been driving around to different areas, and it's real nice. A few days might've been a little too hot for us, but the guys keep telling me it's going to cool down a bit. Other than that, it's been good."
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This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Kyle Shohara is the Digital Manager for DallasStars.com and writes about the Stars/NHL. Follow him on Twitter @kyleshohara.