Erik Haula wasn’t the best player left exposed by the Minnesota Wild, however the pending restricted free agent could be the one that ends up being selected by the Vegas Golden Knights.
According to Wild beat reporter Michael Russo of the Star Tribune, the Golden Knights have held contract discussions with Haula. If the Golden Knights were to choose Haula it would mean centre Eric Staal plus defencemen Mathew Dumba and Marco Scandella would remain with the Wild.
If Vegas general manager George McPhee does sign the Finnish forward, Minnesota would not receive any compensation despite the fact Haula is an RFA. That’s because Vegas had an exclusive to negotiate and sign any pending RFAs or UFAs that were left exposed by their current teams—that window closes at 10 a.m. ET on Wednesday.
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A seventh-round pick of the Wild from 2009, Haula had a career high 15 goals to go along with 11 assists and 28 penalty minutes in 72 games this past season.
It’s possible—or quite likely—Wild GM Chuck Fletcher has a deal in place with Vegas where they’d send something McPhee’s way to ensure he stayed away from Staal, Dumba and Scandella.
McPhee had at least six trades in place as of Tuesday afternoon.
The Wild protected seven forwards (Charlie Coyle, Mikael Granlund, Mikko Koivu, Nino Niederreiter, Zach Parise, Jason Pominville, Jason Zucker), three blue-liners (Jonas Brodin, Jared Spurgeon, Ryan Suter) and netminder Devan Dubnyk.
