While the Carolina Hurricanes season ended in disappointment, the team had a lot to be proud of. Now in the offseason, tough decisions will be made, and management will work to put the team in a place to succeed next season. In the meantime, we will take a look back at individual players’ seasons and see how they did. For the Carolina Hurricanes offseason grades, today we look at Calvin de Haan.
Carolina Hurricanes Offseason Grade: Calvin de Haan
Calvin de Haan is a steady, veteran defensive defenceman. The former New York Islanders first-round pick found himself with Carolina for a second stint this year. After playing six seasons with the Islanders, de Haan signed with Carolina in 2018. However, in a salary dump move, the Hurricanes traded de Haan to the Chicago Blackhawks a year later. He played out the remainder of his contract for the Blackhawks and then got another opportunity with Carolina on a professional tryout contract. De Haan played well enough to turn that PTO into a one-year contract.
Over his career, de Haan has been a reliable defensive defenceman. He has had some injury issues in the past, only playing a full 82 game season once in his career, but nonetheless, he has mostly proven to be a fairly effective bottom four defenceman. Off the ice, de Haan seems to be a lighthearted guy and a great teammate. Interestingly, the Carp, Ontario native has used his time and resources to help revitalize his hometown with the creation of Ridge Rock Brewing company.
Calvin de Haan’s Regular Season
As mentioned above, Calvin de Haan played well enough in the preseason to turn his PTO into a one year contract with Carolina. Overall, based on expectations and his role on the team he played pretty well. Being a defensive defenceman, his point totals have never been a focal point. His career high was in 2016-17 when he had 25 points in 82 games. This season he had two goals and ten assists in 53 games. The Hurricanes did utilize Dylan Coghlan some on the third pairing with Chatfield and de Haan had a few injuries, but de Haan played the majority of the games until the trade deadline.
Until the Hurricanes acquired Shayne Gostisbehere, de Haan was most frequent linemate with Jalen Chatfield on the third defensive pairing. That pair played together about 486 minutes and had a 58.7% expected goals percentage. For a large part, de Haan’s defensive first style complimented Chatfield’s high-flying style. Generally speaking, that third pair’s normal and advanced stats fit right in line as the team’s third pair compared to the other pairings.
Individually, de Haan had 84 hits and 49 blocked shots. His expected goals against and actual goals against were almost identical at 26.1 and 26 respectively. Even with that, he still had a positive ratio of goals for compared to goals against and expected goals for to expected goals against. De Haan was also able to help some on the penalty kill and like other situations was able to hold his own.
The Verdict
Once the Hurricanes acquired Gostisbehere at the trade deadline, de Haan was held out of the lineup and did not play in any playoff games as well. He was there, ready to go if someone got hurt, but was never needed. With that said, de Haan had a very good regular season. He came in on a PTO as a possible veteran depth option and solidified himself on the third pair for most of the season.
At a league minimum deal, de Haan provided the Hurricanes with veteran depth that most probably didn’t expect. On such a defense heavy team, de Haan was a welcome return to the Hurricanes this season. He will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. Carolina might would look to try him out on a PTO or sign him for depth but its also possible he gets a bigger look elsewhere. Regardless, this is another Carolina Hurricanes offseason grade reflecting a player going slightly above expectations.
Grade: C+
Main photo by: James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports
