According to Frank Seravalli of Victory+, the Los Angeles Kings are signing Erik Haula. It will be a two-year, $7.2MM contract per Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic. This will mark Haula’s fourth club since 2021 – after a three-year tenure with the New Jersey Devils and one-year stints with the Boston Bruins and Nashville Predators.
Haula, 34, has stayed a productive, depth forward through his golden years. He scored 14 goals and 38 points in a reunion with the Predators this season, while rotating between the team’s middle-six. Haula also made routine appearances on Nashville’s second power-play and penalty-killing units. Often playing next to Ryan O’Reilly on the penalty-kill, Haula was on the ice for all three shorthanded goals that Nashville scored this season.
Versatile, two-way impact has long underscored Haula’s game. He has challenged 35-to-40 points for much of the 2020s, after reaching a career-high 55 points in the Vegas Golden Knights’ inaugural, 2017-18 season. Haula also offers a reliable bit of center depth. He has taken at least 500 faceoffs in every season since 2021. His faceoff percentage has sat north of 52 percent in every season between 2015 and 2025 – but fell to 49.2 percent in a strained role with Nashville this season.
Los Angeles will hope to offer Haula the setting to improve this season. He should fill a third-line role behind Quinton Byfield and Alex Laferriere, while also offering a role on both special teams.
More to come…