The San Jose Sharks have claimed forward Micheal Haley off waivers from the Florida Panthers this morning.
The 32-year-old forward spent three seasons in the Sharks organization between 2014 and 2017. In those three seasons, Haley played in 78 games, tallying three goals and 10 assists, as well as 187 penalty minutes.
After not playing in the 2017 playoffs, Haley was not re-signed by the Sharks and left for the Florida Panthers with coach Bob Boughner in free agency. In the past two seasons with the Panthers, he’s played in 99 games and scored 12 points (four goals, eight assists) with 242 penalty minutes. Haley has only ever played in two playoff games, with the New York Rangers in 2013, where he logged two hits and two blocked shots in six minutes of ice time. He is in the final year of a two-year, $825,000 contract.
This is an absolutely baffling move by the Sharks. During his last tenure, Haley was often given ice time over younger and more skilled players while contributing virtually nothing to the offense or defense, and creating issues by taking penalties. This is a clear step backward, especially since Pete DeBoer is the same coach who gave Haley those minutes. Instead of acquiring a player that will be of use to them in the postseason, they’ll be taking ice time away from players who will need to be in shape for playoffs so that Micheal Haley can take penalties and injure people. It’s baffling.
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