Subscribe
Follow Us
After playing for six teams over the past five NHL seasons, veteran Erik Haula will finally get some stability after he signed a three-year, $9.45 million pact with the New Jersey Devils on Friday, the team announced.
“It was a huge deal to have security,” Haula said after signing the contract, per NHL.com. “We bounced around quite a bit and just to have the ability to be able to look into housing and get my family all set up and so we're really excited with how it all ended up and I'm just really excited to be back.”
After being acquired by the Boston Bruins, the 32-year-old thrived in New Jersey on a team-friendly one-year, $2.4 million deal — he finished the regular season with 14 goals and 41 points and added four goals and six points in the 2023 postseason.
Under the terms of the deal, Haula will make $3.9 million in 2023-24, $3.15 million in 2024-25 and $2.4 million in 2025-26.
“A big part is I always talk about wanting to win,” Haula said about remaining in Newark, per NHL.com. “I think that we have a group that is just only going to get better and that's always exciting. I always talk about just having a chance to compete for a Cup, and I think this is this is a place where I'm going to have an opportunity to do that for multiple years to come and really excited just the direction of the team and where we're headed.”
Article Continues Below
Haula has totalled 126 goals and 281 points in 614 career NHL games with the Minnesota Wild, Vegas Golden Knights, Carolina Hurricanes, Florida Panthers, Nashville Predators, Bruins and Devils after being selected in the seventh-round of the 2009 NHL Draft by the Wild.
The signing comes just over a week after New Jersey gave Jesper Bratt a mammoth eight-year extension, and talks are reportedly heating up regarding a reunion with trade deadline acquisition Timo Meier.
Undoubtedly, the young Devils have a bright future after defeating the New York Rangers in the first-round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs before bowing out to the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference semis.
Erik Haula will be a big part of that short-term future as the New Jersey Devils look to take the next step in 2023-24.
