The Carolina Hurricanes have signed defenseman Calvin de Haan to a four-year contract worth $18.2 million.

The Hurricanes get: probably the best two-way defenseman on the free agent market, but also the most injury prone. Were it not for said injuries, we could be talking about a completely different de Haan right now as he has a lot of offensive potential. But it’s hard to reach that potential when he missed over a dozen games in 2013-14, 10 games in 2015-16 and 49 games last season – after missing almost the entire 2012-13 campaign.

Fantasy Players Impacted: Injuries aside, de Haan’s production has been steadily improving year-over-year: 0.18 points-per-game in 2014-15, 0.22 in 2015-16, 0.30 in 2016-17 and 0.36 in 2017-18. Those numbers would have risen a lot faster with better health. De Haan was the 12^th overall draft pick in 2009 and he was a near-point-per-game player in the OHL. His big contract will ensure that he gets some power-play time, which pretty much takes Jaccob Slavin off it (not that he was getting a lot). Here are the Carolina defensemen in order of PP priority:

Calvin de Haan

Haydn Fleury

But – and this is where it gets interesting – de Haan is a left-handed shot, whereas both Hamilton and Faulk shoot right. So this could mean that de Haan slots in on the left side while Hamilton is on the right during the power play. A more likely scenario would see four forwards and Hamilton on the first unit, while de Haan and Faulk are on the blue line for the second unit. Either way, I think you see de Haan’s PP usage increase with the Canes. If he can play 70 games this season he is a dark horse to set a career high with 35 points. Currently his high is 25.

📢 advertisement:

Fantasy Players this helps, in order:

1. de Haan

Fantasy Players this hurts, in order:

1. Slavin