News Article: Haula Proving Wild Wrong

57special

Posting the right way since 2012.
Sep 5, 2012
47,618
19,460
MN
Wild fan here. Haula was me second favorite player on the Wild. Was always undervalued and underutilized in MN. As a 7th rounder, he had to work his way up from the AHL, then onto a 4th line, then onto a 3rd line, then , finally got some time on 3v3. Was always an elite PK'er, and a threat to score a shortie.

Mike Yeo was very hard on Haula(and Zucker and Nino), limiting their TOI while giving extended minutes to aging vets. They would all get benched for the slightest thing, while others would get a pass. Haula's turning himself into a defensive C often obscured the fact that he also had a good, if not great, offensive game in college.
 

Aurinko

Registered User
Apr 1, 2015
3,397
2,215
Finland
It's nice to see someone notice Haula.

He's had some dirty goals, but he's deserved them the hard way.

I'm sure there will be a time when his defensive attributes and positioning will also get noticed more widely.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nevada Jones

rynryn

Reluctant Optimist. Permanently Déclassé.
May 29, 2008
33,295
3,338
Minny
blaming Yeo is just lazy. That's a common fallacy perpetrated by people who clearly didn't understand how the team was built and that the most likely method to get success would be.
Zucker was terrible at everything that didn't involve him skating into the O zone by himself and Nino was wildly inconsistent at everything when we preached responsibility above everything. Which is what Haula excelled at IMO. Had inconsistent offense when given a shot, but he remained a very good checker, and provided a scoring threat in that role where we had no one else in the bottom six.
One of my favorite ex-gophers along with Blake Wheeler, so I'd be following him whether he had ever been on the Wild or no.

Hindsight is 20/20 and some Wild fans are complaining about not being able to keep him but you'd be an idiot if you'd keep him over Brodin or Dumba, considering he was due (no dispute) for a raise. Kudos to your GM for recognizing what Haula could bring to the Knights!
 

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad

-->