Vegas Golden Knights Inaugural Season Final Grades: Erik Haula

Erik Haula shattered all expectations and became the Vegas Golden Knights second-line center during the teams inaugural season.

Fans, media and everyone else in between set expectations low for the Vegas Golden Knights. In 2017-18. However, the team and coaching staff had different ideas and turned the tables on the entire NHL. The Golden Knights went out and proved everyone wrong in their very first campaign.

Just about every single player on the Golden Knights roster went above and beyond expectations. Every player bought into Gerard Gallant’s fast transition style of play, and it worked to near perfection. On VegasHockeyKnight.com, we will go over each player with an in-depth analysis and give them a grade based upon their performance during the Golden Knights inaugural season.

Today we continue to talk about the Golden Knights second line. Out of all the surprise’s the Golden Knights had all year long, Erik Haula turned a lot of heads upon arriving in Vegas. Let’s take a look at the year the Pori, Finland native had in a Golden Knights uniform.

The Minnesota Wild were one of the teams that had a tough decision to make at the expansion draft. The Wild had multiple players that they didn’t want to lose such as Matthew Dumba, Jason Zucker, Jonas Brodin and among others. The Wild thought they cut a deal with the Golden Knights and general manager George McPhee.

Vegas promised not to take Dumba from Minnesota in exchange for both Haula and Alex Tuch. Yep, that’s right the Golden Knights got two vital pieces to the puzzle to not take a player in the expansion draft. McPhee made out like a bandit in this deal.

Haula was always used in the Wilds bottom six forward group. The team never gave him the opportunity to play in a top-six role in his time with Minnesota. However, that all changed when he arrived in Las Vegas.

In 76 games played with the Golden Knights, Haula had the best season of his career where he notched 29 goals, 25 assists, and 54 points. Absolutely no one saw this one coming. Who knew he would flourish as the team’s second line center?

His shining moment in the inaugural season of the Golden Knights came in the playoffs against the Los Angeles Kings in game two of the first round. The 27-year old scored the game-0winning goal in double overtime to give Vegas a 2-0 series lead heading back to LA. The Golden Knights ended up sweeping the Kings in the first round of the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Although, aside from his clutch goal against the Kings, Haula’s regular season success didn’t translate in the postseason. In 20 playoff games played, Haula totaled just three goals, six assists, and 9 points. Perhaps if Haula made more of an impact, we could be talking about a Stanley Cup champion in the Golden Knights.

But we have to be fair, Haula is not a natural center. What he did throughout the season to improve at the position speaks volumes of his work ethic, and head coach Gerard Gallant loves players that give 100%. And that’s precisely what Erik Haula did.

Grade: A-

The Vegas Golden Knights signed Paul Stastny to become the team’s new second line center. This should allow Haula to return to his primary position at left wing. And that should only mean good things for the veteran forward during the 2018-19 regular season.