The Tampere-born Hakanen is playing his first full season in the Jr. A SM-liiga with HPK after playing 12 games last season. The rookie currently leads HPK in scoring, as some of the leading older players like Jaakko Kuusisto, Erkka Seppälä and Valtteri Puustinen have moved to play in men’s teams.

Hakanen is a small playmaking center who played for HPK’s second line in the game. He finished with 13:28 of playing time, which was not very much considering he also got some power play time. Hakanen left a decent yet no spectacular impression of himself. He had no shots on goal. The game was a poor one when it comes to whole team effectiveness. HPK had 45 shots on goal without scoring. A lot of it was thanks to Tappara goalie Leevi Nikkinen’s spectacular play, but all HPK lines had some difficulities creating quick passes and shooting straight from the pass.

What impressed me was Hakanen’s attitude in faceoff’s and in the crease. Hakanen really battled to win faceoffs and did well. His skating seems good – however, I wonder if it will be explosive enough to create edge towards all of the bigger opponents. His stickhandling also seemed ok, and he was able to create some chances to his linemates, but it is questionable whether it will be great enough to climb over the obstacles he’s facing among bigger opposing players.