The Carolina Hurricanes brought back defenseman Calvin de Haan on a professional tryout, team reporter Wyatt Ruff reported Friday.
De Haan, 31, is a 6-1, 195-pound left-handed defender who scored eight points (four goals, four assists) and averaged 18:57 in 69 games with the Chicago Blackhawks during the 2021–22 season.
Before being traded to Chicago in 2019, de Haan played one season with the Hurricanes after signing a four-year deal with the club as a free agent. He scored one goal and 14 points while averaging 18:31 in 74 games during his first go-round in Carolina.
The New York Islanders originally selected de Haan in the first round (No. 12 overall) of the 2009 NHL Draft. He made his NHL debut with the club in 2011–12 and played top-four minutes on Long Island before leaving for Carolina as an unrestricted free agent in 2018.
The Hurricanes boast a relatively crowded defensive group, although there might be room for de Haan to sneak in on the third pairing. Jaccob Slavin and Brady Skjei will likely play top-four minutes on the left side, but Jake Gardiner is a big question mark after missing the entire 2021–22 season due to injury.
In 520 career NHL regular-season games with the Islanders, Hurricanes and Blackhawks, de Haan has scored 19 goals and 119 points. He’s added one goal and five points in 37 career postseason contests.
De Haan is the second left-handed defenseman to sign a professional tryout deal Friday. He joins Danny DeKeyser, whose PTO with the Vancouver Canucks was also announced Friday morning.
With de Haan and DeKeyser set to attend NHL camps, only seven defensemen who played more than 20 games last year remain on the market: Keith Yandle, P.K. Subban, Anton Stralman, Zdeno Chara, Andy Greene, Kris Russell and Nathan Beaulieu.
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