Minnesota Wild: Haula’s Production Will Continue This Season

Erik Haula’s first two seasons with the Minnesota Wild were certainly not what anyone expected.  Last year’s second half turnaround looked to reverse those years, but going forward can Haula keep up the production or will he fall back into the player he was the first two seasons?

One of last season’s biggest surprises for the Minnesota Wild was the rise of Erik Haula as one of the team’s best forwards. The beginning of the season looked as if the Wild would see another underperforming year from the Finnesotan, who struggled to put together 29 points over his first two NHL seasons.  With a $1 million cap hit and what could be called a lackluster performance, it looked like the Wild were beginning to make plans to move on after his current deal expired.

Then enter the second half of the season.  So good was Haula’s second half versus his first half he scored 23 of his 34 points from February 9th to the end of the season.  It was a turnaround that has given Haula and the Wild new hope about his future going forward.  So the question seems to be will Haula continue his surge or will he revert back to the player who struggled in his first two seasons?

The answer seems to be that Haula will continue to rise in his production.  The indications right now are that he will be centering the same line with Nino Niederreiter and Jason Pominville who were the Wild’s best line in the from February and even into the playoffs.  Haula will no doubt benefit from playing with a fast developing Niederreiter who looks to increase his career high point total, and Jason Pominville who seems to be motivated to improve on a year that was a career low overall but like Haula is looking to continue momentum from a strong second half.

Additionally, Bruce Boudreau’s style will fit Haula very well.  Offensively he’ll be allowed to be more creative and not have to fall into the defense first trap that kept most of the Wild’s centers offensive numbers down under Mike Yeo.  Haula explained his shift in defense versus offense to Mike Max of WCCO at the end of February by saying that “I’ve still got to remember what my role is and have it in the back of my head that I can play offense as well and can make those plays in the offensive zone.”

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More importantly Boudreau’s positive and player centric attitude will no doubt have an effect on Haula who was I think at times struggling to make the game fun.  Under the demanding and often strict system of Yeo, Haula struggled to find the joy in the game.  That seemed to change with the departure of Yeo and under Torchetti he played even better.  Going into this season the pressure largely off him as he looks to build from his good play rather than dig out from bad play.

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The flip side to all this is that there could be some regression in Haula’s game, but the difference this time is that he’ll be better equipped to deal with it.  Being 25 now and playing in the NHL for three seasons has helped his resiliency.  The issue before seemed to be that since Haula had not enjoyed successes at the NHL level he never knew how to get there.  It seems like now even if he stumbles, Haula should be able to realize what he needs to mentally to keep going and get back to producing.

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No doubt Erik Haula is important to the Wild’s future, and next season is shaping up to be another good year for him.  So as may wonder if Haula will continue his rise in production, you just have to listen to Haula when he told Max “Usually playing well on offense is the best defense.”  Under Boudreau he’ll have a chance to prove that theory, as the coach looks to him to put points on the board.