According to NHL insider Elliotte Friedman, the Los Angeles Kings might sign winger Erik Haula when free agency opens on July 1.
Haula spent last season with the Nashville Predators, scoring 14 goals and 38 points in 81 games. The well-traveled veteran has played for seven teams during his 14 years in the NHL, so changing teams isn’t anything new to Haula, who is 35 years old.
Erik Haula Might Sign With Los Angeles Kings
Speaking to “The Game Nashville,” Friedman was asked if he had heard of any signings ahead of July 1, and the one name that he mentioned was Haula, who he said might go to the Kings.
“The one name I did hear is that Erik Haula might end up in LA,” Friedman said.
Haula makes a lot of sense for the Kings, who could surely use his scoring touch as the veteran left winger has played 840 games in his NHL career, scoring 147 goals and 375 points.
With the Kings looking to add some depth scoring to their lineup under new head coach Peter Laviolette, adding someone like Haula, who is a talented and respected veteran who won’t break the bank in free agency, is a sensible move for Kings GM Steve Yzerman.
Contract Projection for Erik Haula
Haula just finished up his three-year, $9.45 million contract. At age 35, he can likely expect something in a similar range of annual average value on a one- or two-year contract for around $3 million to $4 million per season. Although the salary cap is going up this offseason, it’s not like Haula is an elite player or anything, and given his advanced age, those sorts of numbers seem to be the cap on any potential deal for him.
It is also worth noting that, given that he is 35 years old, Haula qualifies for a one-year contract with incentives, so the Kings could potentially give him that sort of contract structure. The Kings have roughly $11 million in salary cap space to play with this year, so they could potentially give Haula something like $2 million in guarantees and then give him up to $3 million in easy-to-attain incentives and then push them onto next year’s salary cap if they wanted to.
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