New Jersey Devils Trade Erik Haula to Nashville Predators

Less than two weeks away from free agency, the New Jersey Devils clear a little cap space by moving Haula to Nashville.

Today marks the end of Erik Haula’s time with the New Jersey Devils, for now. The team has announced that they have traded Haula to the Nashville Predators for a fourth-round pick in the 2025 Draft and Jeremy Hanzel, a defenseman who spent much of his first full professional season in the ECHL with the Atlanta Gladiators. As the Devils noted in their release, they now have seven picks in the 2025 NHL Draft.

Since being acquired on the morning of July 13, 2022, Erik Haula has been an impactful supporting player for the New Jersey Devils. In his first season with the team, Haula scored 41 points in the regular season and six points in the playoffs, helping the Devils defeat the New York Rangers in the first round after the team set a franchise record for standing points in a season. Simply being a part of this team marked Haula down in the annals of Devils history. In the process, he also made sure to give everyone one of the group’s more memorable goal celebration in one of the team’s momentous victories against New York:

Since that wonderful first step into playoff contention for these Devils, things have not been as great for the team, and Haula has had his share of struggles as well. In the 2023-24 season, Haula was a bit more lucky with his shot, but the team took a step backwards. Signed to a fresh three-year, $9.45 million contract, this regression was not pinned on Haula, but the team needed a strong 2024-25 season from everyone on the roster. In the second year of his deal, Haula only had 11 goals and 10 assists in 69 games, while moved largely off center down the stretch. This may have, in part, made Fitzgerald more likely to trade Haula. Having a bottom six center on an affordable contract would not be the end of the world, cap-wise, but the team had been using him more as a wing. I think it makes some sense to make this trade if they did not plan to put Haula back at center on the third line or at wing on the second line to take faceoffs for Jack Hughes. With $3.15 million in cap space cleared for the next season, they might be able to look for an upgrade on one of those lines if they continue to shed salary:

One of the reasons I was not extremely eager to move Haula is that his contract is affordable. If he just got back to scoring around 15 goals, it would be more or less fair value, or better, depending on his defensive impact. Now with over $14 million in cap space, the team still cannot really do all that much after Luke Hughes signs his extension. They still likely have to move at least one of Ondrej Palat, Dawson Mercer, or Dougie Hamilton to make a big addition at forward. Jared recently laid out the case for thinking about moving Hamilton, but I am not big on the idea. I also wrote about why the team should not shop Dawson Mercer this offseason. In there, I tried to somewhat defend Haula, while acknowledging he would probably be among the first to be moved for cap space, by comparing the Devils’ supporting cast with their contracts and production laid out:

Ondrej Palat: $6Mx2 remaining; 15 goals, 13 assists in 2024-25 ($315,789 per primary point)

Dawson Mercer: $4Mx2 remaining: 19 goals, 17 assists in 2024-25 ($129,032 per primary point)

Erik Haula: $3.15Mx1 remaining: 11 goals, 10 assists in 2024-25 ($185,294 per primary point)

Stefan Noesen: $2.75Mx2 remaining: 22 goals, 19 assists in 2024-25 ($74,324 per primary point[!!!])

I later compared Haula and Palat directly:

I would love to see Palat and Haula turn it around, but at their age, it is not historically likely. Not a lot of players rekindle their old levels of production at 34 years old. Though, to be fair to Haula, he did not get nearly as much secondary assist luck as Palat. Haula had seven primary assists to Palat’s four, while Palat had nine secondary assists to Haula’s three. With eight fewer games played, his season was truly much more palatable than Palat’s. I just don’t expect 40 points from him again.

While Haula did underperform his contract to some extent in the 2024-25 season, he did not do so nearly as much as Ondrej Palat. I recognize that Palat was great in the playoffs at helping Nico Hischier operate, but he still did not get on the scoresheet that much. Since trading Haula represents a pretty limited boost to the team’s cap space, I thought there may have been bigger fish to fry. Considering that he had so few secondary assists this year and probably got unlucky in that regard when you look at his stats, Haula was still mostly staying afloat for the amount the team was paying him. That said, it is not necessarily a bad decision to move on: it just depends on what they do with that extra money.

Jeremy Hanzel should not factor into the 2025-26 season at all. While I will reserve more judgement for the Top 25 Under 25 later this summer, my first impression is that I would be surprised if he ever factored into the operation of the New Jersey Devils as an NHL club. Having another draft pick is a nice thing for Fitzgerald to have in his pocket though, whether he flips in a trade or tries to find a diamond in the rough with it.

Therefore, we will not be able to judge this move in a vacuum. If Tom Fitzgerald does not invest this money into moves that can help the Devils’ middle six compete and create goals, I might end up disappointed, and just wanting Haula back. But if this is just the first of a string of moves that results in a big contributor joining the team, I am likely to look on this trade positively. This is the business side of it: the Devils need to trade someone to make additions.

I will always like Erik Haula, though. He made a lot of fans, some of whom have posted some great tributes, like this one from the Traveling Haulas. But at least the Traveling Haulas will not need to add a new jersey to the mix, as Haula played with Nashville in the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season. Now, perhaps, Haula can get a taste of real life in Nashville, and not the pandemic version of it, while he reunites with Andrew Brunette, who was a part of the 2022-23 coaching staff that Haula worked so well under.

When Haula first signed that extension in 2023, the Devils posted a big feature titled “Haula is Home.” In that piece, Haula touched on how much movement he has done throughout his career since Vegas pulled him from Minnesota in their expansion draft, and that it was good to finally have a place to settle down. For him, I wish that he could have gotten to finish his contract in New Jersey. When he said he didn’t want to play for another team, I believed him. He mixed well with his teammates on a personal level and provided a lot of what they needed on the ice. If anything, it feels like he is departing with unfinished business, and I would mark him as an early 2026 free agency target, assuming he doesn’t extend in Nashville.

Your Thoughts

What do you think of the Haula trade? Do you think he will have a bounce back season? What was your favorite memory of Erik Haula? What is next for the team? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.