How a year away from NHL rejuvenated Eric Staal and set him up to (probably) make Panthers
After 74 games in 171 days, the most chaotic seven months of Eric Staal’s long, storied career ended in the summer of 2021 with his Montreal Canadiens watching the Tampa Bay Lightning hoist another Stanley Cup. At 36, what Staal needed most was a break.
His year — like everyone’s during the 2020-21 NHL season — included up to four games each week, sparsely filled arenas and constant worries about COVID-19, but his season had a few more wrinkles. The Buffalo Sabres traded him to the Canadiens after 32 games and then Montreal, playing in empty stadiums almost all year because of Canada’s COVID regulations, made an unlikely run to the 2021 Stanley Cup Finals.
When it ended, a new NHL season was only three months away. Staal decided he could wait.
“It definitely took a big toll,” said Staal, who’s now on a professional tryout with the Florida Panthers.
Instead of worrying about the 2021-22 NHL season, Staal set a new target: He wanted to represent Canada one more time in the 2022 Winter Olympics and he did, captaining his national team in Beijing while most of his peers ground through another NHL season.
All in all, it was rejuvenating for Staal, who played just five games in China and four more on a professional tryout with AHL Iowa earlier in the year as a tune-up for the Winter Olympics, and now a return to the NHL is closer than it has been at any point since the Canadiens lost in the 2021 Cup Finals.
Staal, now 37, was in the lineup for the Panthers in their penultimate game of the preseason Thursday against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Sunrise, which is a good sign for the six-time All-Star center’s prospects to make the final roster. Although Florida was missing several key contributors with injuries, new coach Paul Maurice said he wanted to treat this game at FLA Live Arena as something like a dress rehearsal before the regular season begins next Thursday. Staal, based on his play and usage so far in the preseason, appears to be in Maurice’s plans.
“He’s got a legitimate chance, and it’s got nothing to do with our history,” said Maurice, who coached Staal early in his carer with the Carolina Hurricanes. “I told him I’d be real honest.”
The year away from the NHL went a long way. Staal was an All-Star as recently as 2020 when he was the third-most productive scorer for the Minnesota Wild — he even led the Wild with five points in the qualifying round of the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs after the coronavirus cut short the end of the regular season — only his production promptly fell off a cliff after he left Minnesota at the end of the year. Including the playoffs, Staal scored just 21 points in 74 games — with a plus-minus of minus-32 — in his most recent season in the NHL.
“For sure, having that extended time off, and then just doing the Olympics and a few games in the minors — it kind of refreshes the body and mind,” Staal said. “And then it was getting back up to speed and pace.”
The clear parallel for Staal in Florida is Joe Thornton, who signed a one-year deal with the Panthers last year to chase a Stanley Cup and wound up only playing 35 games due to injury and performance. The six-time All-Star, now a free agent, mostly just became an important veteran presence in the locker room.
It’s part of the deal, Staal knows, even if he didn’t come to Broward County just to try to be a glorified player-coach. He’s out to prove he still has something to give on the ice.
“You know and learn how to be a good teammate regardless, but if you don’t have that fire to want to be in the lineup every night, then you’re missing some stuff,” Staal said. “There’s no question I would want to be in the lineup. Everybody does, but at the same time you realize there’s tons of great talent and tons of great players, so you do what you’ve got to do every day and try to help the group, and if it’s not your time you try to make sure you’re ready when it is.”
