Buffalo Sabres trade former Hurricanes captain Eric Staal
There will be no Staal family reunion in Raleigh this season.
The Buffalo Sabres traded Eric Staal, the beloved former Carolina Hurricanes captain and brother of current captain Jordan Staal, to the Montreal Canadiens on Friday afternoon for a pair of draft picks, according to multiple reports.
Staal has struggled this season, alongside just about everyone else on the Buffalo roster. He has three goals and seven assists in 32 games for the Sabres this season. The team is currently mired in a 16-game winless streak, and has been shut out more times than it’s won.
Now 36 years old, Staal played the first 13 seasons of his pro career with the Hurricanes’ organization (including a year with the AHL’s Lowell Lock Monsters in the 2004-05 strike season) after being drafted No. 2 overall out of the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey League in 2003.
In each of his seasons in Carolina except his first (31) and his last (33) in 2015-16, Staal registered at least 40 points for the Canes. During the Canes’ run to the 2006 Stanley Cup title, Stall had his best offensive year, putting up 100 points in the regular season and another 28 in 25 playoff games.
The Canes made Staal the team’s captain in 2010, when he succeeded current Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour in that role.
At the trade deadline in 2016, the Hurricanes traded him to the New York Rangers.
The following season, he signed with the Minnesota Wild, where he stayed — and thrived — for four years, collecting 111 goals and 129 assists for 240 points in 311 games.
