Oilers Lose Gaetan Haas to 5-Yr Deal in Switzerland

Haas previously played eight seasons with EHC Biel-Bienne. That was two years prior to him joining SC Bern in 2017 and then he made the transition to the NHL for two years with the Oilers. He was brought in for his speed, and while he played an effective game, unfortunately, Haas could never quite find a regular spot in the lineup. He played a solid defensive game and was a speedy forechecker, he just didn’t score enough to maintain full-time employment.

He appeared in 92 games with the Oilers and scored seven goals and 13 points and while he was a right-shot defenseman that could have moved up to the third-line spot the Oilers are trying to fill, because he didn’t score enough and because he was only 44% in just over 700 faceoff draws, the Oilers weren’t ready to commit that position in the lineup to him.

Haas and Nygard Now Gone

The Oilers experiment to add speed didn’t pan out the way they would have hoped. They’ll now have to look at other options to fill that role, along with finding a player who can penalty kill as well as Haas did. This could be one of the reasons GM Ken Holland signed depth forward Devin Shore to a two-year extension at $850K per season on Wednesday.

Haas is the second Oilers forward the team has lost to international hockey as it was announced earlier this summer that Joakim Nygard was returning back home to Sweden. Nygard signed a six-year pact with Farjestad BK of the SHL.

Best of luck to Gaetan Haas who felt he was going to have a much better run for the next five seasons playing back home.