Calvin de Haan, Islanders agree on one-year deal
New York Islanders defenseman Calvin de Haan answers questions from the media on the day the Islanders clean out their lockers at Northwell Health Ice Center on Monday, April 10, 2017. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Islanders agreed to terms on a one-year contract with defenseman Calvin de Haan worth $3.3 million on Wednesday morning.
Last season, de Haan, 26, set career highs with five goals and 20 assists while playing in all 82 games. He ranked fourth in the NHL in blocked shots with 190 and finished with a career-best plus-15, second-best on the team.
De Haan, who finished a three-year, $5.9-million contract last season, had been scheduled for an arbitration hearing on Wednesday.
“I’m excited to be back,” de Haan said in an interview with the team’s website. He said had he gone through with the arbitration process, it still would have resulted in a one-year contract, but he added, “It was nice to get it done before.”
De Haan is optimistic about the 2017-18 season. “Our record [last season] spoke for itself,” he said. “We were one of the best teams in the league after that coaching change [from Jack Capuano to Doug Weight] happened and it was a fun team to play for . . . It’s kind of gut-wrenching, almost, going 6-0 in the last six games and you don’t get in the playoffs, but we can try and carry that on to the next season, go from there and obviously the ultimate goal is to win the Stanley Cup.”
De Haan was the 12th overall pick in the 2009 NHL Draft for the Islanders. He has 11 goals and 58 assists in 271 career games.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
