Carolina Hurricanes: Why You Should Be Excited About Erik Haula

The Carolina Hurricanes have picked up an absolute gem in Erik Haula. The Finnish forward may have missed a vast majority of last season, but here’s why you should be excited to watch him bounce back and even MORE excited that he’s a Carolina Hurricane.

A few weeks ago, on June 27th, the Carolina Hurricanes traded Nicolas Roy and a conditional (pending Haula’s status with the Canes next season) 2021 5th Round Pick to the Vegas Golden Knights for Erik Haula.

Haula had a brilliant 2017-18 season with the Golden Knights; the then 27-year old forward notched a career-high 29 goals and 26 assists for a combined 55 points in 76 games played in the regular season; Haula had 3 goals and 6 assists for 9 total points in 20 games during the 2017-18 playoffs.

After his breakout season with the Golden Knights, Haula was on pace to keep up the momentum going into the 2018-19 season, but those hopes were cut short on November 6th, 2018; Haula suffered a season-ending injury against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

An important thing to note, though, is that Haula was reportedly very close to making a return to action in the postseason, but was ultimately unable to as the Golden Knights fell in the first round to the San Jose Sharks.

His injury was not so much a factor in Vegas sending him to Raleigh as it was the salary cap; Vegas at the time, was dipping into the 5% overage in the salary cap that is allotted to teams in the offseason. Even after moving Haula and his $2.75M AAV contract, they are still close to being over the cap by $5M or so.

Haula is fast, dynamic, and a very intelligent playmaker that has the skill to score plenty of goals. In a now insanely deep Carolina Hurricanes squad, Haula will still be a Top-6 talent. Haula has expressed his desire to play center over wing, and will more than likely slot in as the coveted 2nd-line center that the Hurricanes have been in need of for the past decade or so.

According to GM Don Waddell:

“Erik is a skilled, experienced player who has been productive at even strength and on special teams. We expect him to be healthy and ready for training camp.”

Did you see that, guys? Productive at even strength and on special teams. The Hurricanes’ special teams, particularly the lack of production on the powerplay, was a big reason for many of the teams struggles in the regular season, but most notably against the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference Finals this past season.

19 of Haula’s 55 points during the 2017-18 season were on the powerplay: 12 goals and 7 assists, to be precise. The Hurricanes may have finally procured the prized missing piece to the precarious puzzle of a poorly productive powerplay. Alliteration aside, Haula, coupled with players like Teuvo Teravainen, Andrei Svechnikov, Nino Niederreiter, and the newly acquired Ryan Dzingel, could completely revolutionize and reinvigorate the Hurricanes’ powerplay.

I know, most of us are going to miss Nicolas Roy (and the various other Charlotte Checkers that have moved on to other teams), but this trade is an absolute win in my book. Waddell and Co. have yet again taken advantage of the fact that the Hurricanes have the upper hand when it comes to salary cap space.

I don’t know about you guys, but it feels so good to finally watch this team flourish under a new ownership, general management, and coaching staff that is genuinely interested in the success and longevity of this franchise in Raleigh. Haula is going to make this team better, and we have every reason to believe he’ll bounce back and have yet another career-defining year.

Question for CC Readers: How many points do you think Haula will accumulate in his first season as a Carolina Hurricane?