Bolts sign free agent defenseman Calvin de Haan to a one-year contract

TAMPA BAY - The Tampa Bay Lightning have signed free agent defenseman Calvin de Haan to a one-year contract worth $775,000, vice president and general manager Julien BriseBois announced today.

The 32-year-old de Haan played the 2022-23 season in Carolina where he posted two goals and 12 points in 53 games and led all Hurricanes defensemen for hits (84).

De Haan has spent parts of 11 seasons in the NHL between the New York Islanders, Chicago Blackhawks and Carolina, tallying 21 goals and 131 points in 573 contests. The 6-foot-1, 195-pound blueliner was originally the 12th overall pick in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft by the Islanders and made his NHL debut with New York on December 15, 2011 versus Dallas. He played six seasons with the Islanders before signing a four-year contract with Carolina prior to the 2018-19 season. He was then traded to Chicago along with forward Aleksi Saarela in exchange for goaltender Anton Forsberg and defenseman Gustav Forsling on June 24, 2019 and spent three seasons with the Blackhawks. In his final season in Chicago in 2021-22, de Haan paced all Blackhawks skaters for blocked shots (172) and finished second on the team for hits (146). Prior to the 2022-23 season, de Haan re-signed with Carolina as a free agent.

The Carp, Ontario, native won back-to-back silver medals at the 2010 and 2011 IIHF World Junior Championships with Canada, serving as an alternate captain in 2011, and also represented Canada at the 2017 IIHF World Championship, again winning silver.