We can safely start with this: Eric Staal needed a change.
By all accounts, Staal is an upstanding guy, a worthy person to have worn a captain's C for as long as he did with the Carolina Hurricanes. He was a pillar of the community around Raleigh—a leader on and off the ice.
But this can safely be said too: Eric Staal wasn't a very good player anymore with the Hurricanes. He had 10 goals in 63 games before being traded to the New York Rangers for two second-round draft picks and Finnish prospect Aleksi Saarela, according to Bob McKenzie of TSN (via Yahoo Sports).
While his Corsi for percentage numbers were good (62.6 this season), the Hurricanes needed more than just a guy who holds on to the puck well. They needed him to find more ways to put it in the net, and for the last three years, he just didn't do that enough for a guy receiving $9.5 million this year and $9.25 million the two before.
He was the captain, a cornerstone, a guy with a rich, long-term, no-move-clause contract. But that added up to another word that begins with C: complacency.
"There's just been this easy ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Adrian Dater
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February 28th, 2016 by Adrian Dater Leave a reply »
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