About Last Season: Calvin de Haan Performance Review and Grade

Calvin de Haan: Be the Numbers

• Age: 28
• NHL Seasons: 6
• Games Played: 74
• 1 goal 13 assists, 14 points
• Ice Time: 16:26 even strength, 1:59 penalty kill, 0:06 power play, 18:31 all situations
• 5-on-5: 55.64% Corsi, 47.67% Goals For, 54.69% Offensive Zone Starts
• Contract Status: 3 years, $4.550 mil AAV

Making the Grade

Calvin de Haan came to the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2018 off season as a surprising free agent signing. The veteran defenseman, who had spent his entire career with the New York Islanders, pointed to the young defensive corps as a reason to be excited and signed a four-year deal. The signing bolstered the Canes defense to now have three solid pairings moving forward, but did add to the logjam at defense for Haydn Fleury and Jake Bean.

De Haan proved to be extremely versatile on defense but played a majority of the season on the second pairing with Justin Faulk. He also logged significant minutes with Trevor van Riemsdyk on the third pairing. He was a coach’s dream because he was able to be plugged in with any partner in any situation and play solid minutes.

His production wasn’t great this season with a single goal and 13 assists, which tied van Riemsdyk for the fewest as a regular defenseman for the Canes. However, when he scored, it counted: his lone goal was a game winning goal against the Blackhawks on November 8^th. His 14 points in the regular season was the third lowest total of his career despite playing the second most games he has played in a season with 74.

Despite the lack of production, he was still a driver of possession with the third highest Corsi at 55.64% and fourth best plus-minus among Canes defensemen, with a rating of +1. De Haan also never seemed to be a guy that was getting the spotlight for a blown coverage leading to a goal.

However, I was surprised to see that his goals-for percentage was so bad. At 47.67% he was ranked 15^th on the team and that is with a positive offensive zone start percentage, which does make that a tougher feat to accomplish. That means he was on the ice and a goal was scored 52.33% of the time it was a goal against, despite starting in the Canes offensive zone 54.69% of the time while 5-on-5.

This is likely because he was playing with Faulk and van Riemsdyk who are the defenders who struggle the most on defense with the Canes, but they can’t shoulder all the blame for goals against. Despite the goal against stats, there really isn’t an argument that the Canes are a better team without de Haan.

One of the biggest contributions de Haan made was forming a solid pairing with Faulk. His dependability on defense meant that he could play on the penalty kill on the second pairing and not force Faulk or Hamilton to log a ton of minutes and allow them to recover for even strength and power play time.

The only concerning thing about de Haan is really his health record. He has only played a full season one time in his career and that was in the 2016-2017 season. He suffered two serious, although unintentional, eye injuries during the season. After his most recent eye injury, he admitted he was feeling his face to make sure he still had an eyeball. It seems that he avoided any long term Marc Staal type injury.

He also left the playoffs early with a shoulder injury that required surgery and will keep him out through the start of next season. He is expected to need four to six months to recover.

The Hurricanes have been in the same scenario for the past couple of years where they have a surplus on defense and could be looking to trade a defenseman to bring in offensive skill. If Don Waddell is convinced they can re-sign Justin Faulk, de Haan seems a possible candidate to go. He is older than Pesce and likely has a higher floor, but with the injury recovery it could scare teams away. If the Canes trade another defenseman, he will have no problem stepping up to a larger role with the team.

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