Erik Haula has spent years as one of the easiest villains for Hurricanes fans to circle on the calendar, and the weird thing is that the dislike has only gotten more fun because Carolina keeps winning the argument.
Haula first arrived in Raleigh on June 26, 2019, when the Hurricanes landed him from the Vegas Golden Knights in a deal that sent Nicolas Roy and a pick to Vegas. For a stretch, it looked like a perfect fit. He opened the 2019-20 season scorching hot, recording points in nine of his first 11 games and piling up eight goals and 11 points in 14 games.
Then the injuries hit. A knee issue cost him four games in early November, and things unraveled after he came back.
He played only two more games before a nagging injury forced him out for more than a month. Even so, he closed 2019 on a strong note, highlighted by a two-goal, three-point night in Toronto during a big December run.
Once the calendar flipped, the production dipped. Haula was a healthy scratch in the final game before the All-Star break, and the relationship with Carolina kept sliding from there. With his contract expiring and no extension on the horizon, the Hurricanes moved him to Florida in a four-player trade for Vincent Trocheck.
That was only the beginning of the bad blood.
Haula didn’t face Carolina again with the Panthers for the rest of the 2019-20 season or in the postseason bubble, but the rivalry really caught fire after he signed with the Nashville Predators that offseason. Put in the Central Division, he saw the Hurricanes eight times in the 56-game season and was healthy for five of those matchups, finishing with two goals and three points.
The first-round playoff meeting between Carolina and Nashville in 2021 turned things up another notch. Haula was a problem, especially in the way he went after Martin Necas, his former linemate.
The two were at it throughout the series. Haula finished with four points, but the Hurricanes won the series in six games.
The pattern kept repeating. After Haula signed with Boston, he wound up facing Carolina in the first round again, and again the Hurricanes sent him home.
He was then traded to the Devils that summer, putting him back in the Metropolitan Division, and on his third team in three years he met the same fate once more. Carolina beat New Jersey in five games in the second round.
That made Haula the first player in NHL history to be eliminated by the same team in three consecutive postseasons while playing for three different teams.
If that wasn’t enough to keep the Caniacs entertained, the summer of #BraceletGate added another layer. A photo spread on social media showing Haula at a charity golf event wearing a “Canes Suck” bracelet.
The bracelet, it turned out, came from a young Taylor Swift fan who had extra bracelets to hand out. When she offered one to Haula, he asked whether she had one with those two words on it.
She said she didn’t, then said she could make one. That was enough to set off Hurricanes fans all over again.
It was a tiny moment on its face, but not in the eyes of the fan base. Haula leaned into it anyway, and that only made the whole thing more ridiculous and more memorable.
The Hurricanes kept getting the final word. The Devils missed the playoffs in 2024, so Haula didn’t get a chance to be bounced by Carolina for a fourth straight year.
In 2025, though, the Canes were back at it, beating him in the first round for the fourth time in five years. Haula managed just one assist in the five-game series, and afterward he was traded to Nashville.
The numbers in Raleigh tell the same story. Haula hasn’t won a regular-season game there since January 10, 2023, and that remains his only win in Raleigh since Carolina dealt him away.
All seven of his postseason victories against the Hurricanes came at home. He also hasn’t scored a goal against Carolina since May 12, 2022, when Boston won Game 6.
Now Haula is with the Los Angeles Kings, which means a postseason meeting with Carolina could only happen in the Stanley Cup Final. The Kings visit Raleigh on January 30, 2027, and the crowd won’t be rolling out the welcome mat. Haula has been living with that for a while.
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