Calvin de Haan was one of two remaining players scheduled for arbitration, and was set to have a hearing this morning in Toronto to decide his fate. Just before that happened, the two sides have agreed upon a new one-year deal worth $3.3MM. The two sides had been more than $3MM apart in their arbitration figures, but met somewhere in the middle for de Haan’s final season before unrestricted free agency. 
Now 26-years old, de Haan is coming off the best statistical season of his career. Registering 25 points, he played in all 82 games for the Islanders and averaged almost 20 minutes a night. Though his role is likely unchanged with the trade of Travis Hamonic, he could see a slight bump in special teams time as the Islanders will likely be icing a pair of youngsters at some point throughout the year in Ryan Pulock and Adam Pelech.
de Haan really impressed at the recent World Championships for Team Canada and will now immediately jump to near the top of both a trade candidate and potential free agent list. If the Islanders are out of the playoff race by February, you’ll surely hear his name in rumors to add to a Cup contender. He’ll also be an interesting option on the free agent market, with his combination of youth and two-way play. With many players already starting to sign extensions, he could be one of the top options and earn a contract similar to Karl Alzner on the open market, if not even bigger.
That’s not to say that the Islanders can’t re-sign him, as he’s never shown any indication he doesn’t want to play for them. This agreement could be just a way to avoid the sometimes painful process of arbitration, which can be detrimental to a professional relationship. The two sides can work with the $3.3MM amount, which represents a slight raise on the $2.9MM he earned last year, but fits into the Islanders’ salary structure well. Signing him any longer may have never been an option for the club, as they have a huge offseason coming up next summer.
John Tavares, Josh Bailey, Nikolai Kulemin, Brock Nelson, Shane Prince, Alan Quine, Thomas Hickey, Ryan Pulock and now de Haan are all free agents of one sort or another, giving the team the option to go in one direction or another. That decision likely depends on Tavares’ decision on whether or not to stay long-term. If he doesn’t, the team has an easy tear down to try and rebuild around their young players like Josh Ho-Sang and Mathew Barzal, and de Haan could be more valuable on a cheap one-year deal at the deadline than a long-term contract with a much higher cap-hit. This will be a very important first half of the season for the Islanders, as their franchise could go in very different directions at mid-season.
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