Erik Haula

Erik Haula
Date of birth	March 23, 1991
place of birth	Pori , Finland
size	180 cm
Weight	85 kg
position	center
number	# 56
Shot hand	Left
Draft
NHL Entry Draft	2009 , 7th round, 182nd position Minnesota Wild
KHL Junior Draft	2010 , 7th round, 160th position SKA Saint Petersburg
Career stations
2009-2010	Omaha Lancers
2010-2013	University of Minnesota
2013-2017	Minnesota Wild
2017-2019	Vegas Golden Knights
2019-2020	Carolina Hurricanes
since 2020	Florida panthers

Erik Haula (born March 23, 1991 in Pori ) is a Finnish ice hockey player who has been under contract with the Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League since February 2020 . The attacker came to North America at the age of 16, attended the University of Minnesota and then spent four years with the Minnesota Wild , two years with the Vegas Golden Knights and briefly with the Carolina Hurricanes .

Career

youth

Erik Haula comes from a family of athletes; his mother was a speed skater , while his father was a player and coach in semi-professional Finnish American football . It was he who brought Erik Haula to ice hockey because he thought football was too dangerous. His father later worked as a consultant for other Finnish players in North America, among other things because the family home in Finland was frequented by Americans and both he and his son learned English fluently.

Haula started playing ice hockey at the age of three and went through the youth departments of Porin Ässät , the ice hockey team in his hometown of Pori. At the turn of the year 2007/08 he already represented his country's national team at the World U-17 Hockey Challenge 2008 and won the bronze medal there. A few months later he also took part in the U18 World Cup in 2008 , where he finished sixth with the team. The family then decided that Haula should move to North America in order to improve conditions for his career. Since 2008, the Finn has attended Shattuck-Saint Mary’s High School in Faribault , Minnesota . The boarding school is known for its sporting talent promotion, so that Haula was often watched by scouts . As a result, he was selected in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft in 182nd position, although he did not play in a leading junior league, but in a high school league. Before the draft he also took part in the U18 World Cup.

After the entry draft, the attacker moved to Omaha for the Omaha Lancers in the higher United States Hockey League (USHL). There he graduated from high school and played successfully in the highest junior league in the United States, so he reached the conference final with the team and was fifth-best scorer in the entire league with 72 points from 56 games. After the season he was elected to the USHL All-Rookie Team and the USHL Second All-Star Team ; he also took part in the All-Star Game . He was then selected in the KHL Junior Draft , by SKA Saint Petersburg in 160th place.

University of Minnesota

Haula then enrolled at the University of Minnesota and started playing for the Gophers in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) in the 2010/11 season . He was only the second player in the university's history to appear for the ice hockey team and not from North America - after Thomas Vanek , with whom he would later play in the game. Already in the freshman year he provided most of the team's assists (18) and led all freshmen across the league in assists and scorer points (24). He also took part in the 2011 U20 World Cup , where he again finished sixth. As a sophomore , Haula was already the best scorer (49) of the gophers and reached the Frozen Four , the finals of the best four college teams in the USA , with the team .

In his third and final year at the U of M, the Finn increased his personal statistics again (51 points from 37 games) and was appointed to the WCHA Second All-Star Team and the All-Academic Team . After the end of the college season, he made his professional debut in the American Hockey League (AHL) for the Houston Eros , the farm team of the Wild, and came to eleven appearances in regular season and play-offs by the end of the season.

NHL

In July 2013, the Minnesota Wild signed him and initially gave him to their new farm team, the Iowa Wild . Haula was able to convince there and was subsequently called into the NHL squad for the first time in November 2013, made his debut in the National Hockey League (NHL) and spent most of the rest of the season there (46 games). In the subsequent play-offs in particular, he attracted attention with seven points from 13 games. After he became vice world champion with the Finnish national team , he had his regular place in the NHL squad with the beginning of the 2014/15 season. The following season, 2015/16, he increased his personal statistics significantly to 34 points from 76 games and also led the game in the plus / minus statistic (+21) and in shorthanded -Scorerpunkten (4). Then he was part of the Finnish squad at the World Cup of Hockey 2016 .

In June 2017, he was selected by the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft . For this election (and to protect other players from voting), Minnesota also sent Alex Tuch to Vegas in exchange for a third-round vote in the 2017 or 2018 NHL Entry Draft . With the Golden Knights, Haula signed a new three-year contract directly, which should bring him an average annual salary of $ 2.75 million. With the team, he surprisingly reached the final of the Stanley Cup in the following playoffs in 2018 , but lost to the Washington Capitals there . In addition, he was one of the many Golden Knights players in the debut season who were able to significantly increase their personal statistics, he recorded 55 scorer points and with 29 hits became the team's second-best scorer behind William Karlsson . In the following game year, the Finn only played 15 games, as he was out for the rest of the season from mid-November 2018 due to an injury. In June 2019, Haula was transferred to the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for Nicolas Roy . In addition, the Golden Knights, who were forced to make this transfer due to their salary cap situation, will receive a five-round vote in the NHL Entry Draft 2021 , provided that Haula is part of the Carolinas roster beyond summer 2020 or is transferred.

The latter happened because Haula was transferred to the Florida Panthers with Lucas Wallmark , Eetu Luostarinen and Chase Priskie for the trade deadline in February 2020 . In return, the Hurricanes received Vincent Trocheck .

Achievements and Awards

2010 participation in the USHL All-Star Game 2010 USHL All-Rookie Team 2010 USHL Second All-Star Team

2013 WCHA All-Academic Team 2013 WCHA Second All-Star Team

International

• 2008 bronze medal at the World U-17 Hockey Challenge
• 2014 silver medal at the world championship

Career statistics

Status: end of the 2019/20 season

				Regular season							Playoffs
season	team	league		Sp	T	V	Pt	+/-	SM		Sp	T	V	Pt	+/-	SM
2009/10	Omaha Lancers	USHL		56	28	44	72	+36	59		8th	2	9	11	± 0	2
2010/11	University of Minnesota	NCAA		34	6th	18th	24	+10	22nd
2011/12	University of Minnesota	NCAA		43	20th	29	49	+17	30th
2012/13	University of Minnesota	NCAA		37	16	35	51	+19	14th
2012/13	Houston Eros	AHL		6th	0	2	2	+1	2		5	1	1	2	-4	4th
2013/14	Iowa Wild	AHL		31	14th	13	27	+2	14th		-	-	-	-	-	-
2013/14	Minnesota Wild	NHL		46	6th	9	15th	+14	29		13	4th	3	7th	+2	0
2014/15	Minnesota Wild	NHL		72	7th	7th	14th	–7	32		2	1	0	1	+1	0
2015/16	Minnesota Wild	NHL		76	14th	20th	34	+21	24		5	1	3	4th	± 0	2
2016/17	Minnesota Wild	NHL		72	15th	11	26th	+5	28		4th	0	1	1	-2	0
2017/18	Vegas Golden Knights	NHL		76	29	26th	55	-16	37		20th	3	6th	9	-3	27
2018/19	Vegas Golden Knights	NHL		15th	2	5	7th	+1	10		-	-	-	-	-	-
2019/20	Carolina Hurricanes	NHL		41	12	10	22nd	+1	20th		-	-	-	-	-	-
2019/20	Florida panthers	NHL		7th	0	2	2	± 0	2		4th	1	0	1	-3	0
NCAA overall				114	42	82	124	+46	66
AHL total				37	14th	15th	29	+3	16		5	1	1	2	-4	4th
NHL overall				405	85	90	175	+19	182		48	10	13	23	-5	29

International

Represented Finland at:

World U-17 Hockey Challenge 2008 U18 Junior World Championship 2008 U18 Junior World Championship 2009

U20 World Junior Championship 2011 World Championship 2014 World Cup of Hockey 2016

year	team	event	result		Sp	T	V	Pt	+/-	SM
2008	Finland	U17-WHC	6th place		5	2	8th	10		18th
2008	Finland	U18 World Cup	6th place		6th	1	3	4th	+1	2
2009	Finland	U18 World Cup			6th	3	1	4th	–6	2
2011	Finland	U20 World Cup	6th place		6th	4th	3	7th	+2	10
2014	Finland	WM			6th	0	1	1	-2	2
2016	Finland	World cup	8th place		1	0	0	0	-1	0
Juniors overall					23	10	15th	25th		32
Men overall					7th	0	1	1	-3	2

( Legend for player statistics: Sp or GP = games played; T or G = goals scored; V or A = assists scored ; Pkt or Pts = scorer points scored ; SM or PIM = penalty minutes received ; +/− = plus / minus balance; PP = overpaid goals scored ; SH = underpaid goals scored ; GW = winning goals scored; ¹  play-downs / relegation )

Web links

• Player biography on the Florida Panthers website
• Erik Haula at eliteprospects.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Michael Russo: Football-playing father finds joy in Haula's success with Wild. Star Tribune , February 6, 2014, accessed March 6, 2015 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b} Thom Wynn: Getting to Know Gophers Center Erik Haula - Extensive Q&A. gopherhole.com, July 3, 2013, accessed March 6, 2015 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Erika Haula Bio. gophersports.com, accessed March 6, 2015 . 
4. ↑ Wild Inks Haula To Entry-Level Deal. wild.nhl.com, July 4, 2013, accessed March 6, 2015 .